My big, fat, Cuban family consists of pretty much the same people year after year. Except for the occasional birth, marriage, or divorce, I'm still related to the same people. It's still just "us." (Sometimes "us" can get to upwards of 40 people, but that's not important right now.) We Cubans have our BIG ...
creative stuff
Classic.
My dad and most of the Verdés side of the family grew up playing multiple instruments. He loved, loved, loved any kind of music, but was an afficionado of classical and played both the piano and the cello. As much as I love my salsa music, oldies, and classic rock, I love listening to classical when I'm working on an art project. I think it ...
No “El Tri-co-tri” for you!
My mom calls. "Van a ir al tri-co-tri?" She's asking if the kids are going out and Trick or Treating. El Tri-co-tri. You have to say it phonetically, TREE-COH-TREE. It's what Trick or Treat sounds like with a Cuban accent. The "El" is just to make it grammatically correct. El Tri-co-tri. Noun. (Or verb?) The act of dressing up and begging for ...
Exact change.
I've homeschooled my kids for years now. Ever since Lucy and Jonathan were both in elementary school. Last semester they both went to the Cooler-Than-Thou Local Art School. But the days there were way too long for people who were used to having lots of time to do their own creative stuff and they both independently decided they wanted to come ...
Celebrating Abuela
I never knew my grandparents. We left Cuba when I was so very young that I barely remember my grandmothers. I think my dad's parents had already passed away by the time I was born. And I have just the few mental snapshots that a five year old can retain of my mom's mother. Here's a beautiful old photo of her, my maternal grandmother, ...
Everyone’s Invited!
I can't remember when this started, but as long as I remember we have been making invitations for our Nochebuena Celebration on December the 24th. It's always the same people (with a few added guests). They all know when and where the party is because we have been discussing it for weeks. And, Duh! We do this every, single year. But ...
Make it and Take it
I'm a giver. I give. (You could possibly call me a bit co-dependent, but that's not important right now.) Anyway, back to giving. I'm giving away my personal label designs for Creme de Vie (recipe here) and for Homemade Dulce de Leche (recipe here.) Here's the Crema de Vie ~ Feliz Navidad! Label.And this one is in case ...
Curses! Foiled Again!
**The following post of daring ingenuity and all-around cleverness has been brought to you by the one and only Kikita. I've been temping.'Nuff said. Actually, there's so much more to say.I've done temp work before. I've worked all kinds of places. In fact, there was even a time when I worked as a "Staffing Agent" ...
The Christmas Card Photo Shoot of 2010
It will go down in family history as The Year We Hauled the Red Chair Down to the Park. Here's how the whole thing went down: Eric and I went on a pre-Thanksgiving cruise (on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, which I still have to write about, but that's not important right now). That very same (pre-Thanksgiving) weekend, my son, ...
Fambook – like Facebook….but not…
My big, fat, Cuban family is made up of a ton of people. As you can probably imagine, we ditched having every single family member buying Christmas gifts for every other person a long time ago. The only exemption to this rule is my mom. Everyone buys her a little something. We tried drawing names, but after a couple of years, we ran out of ideas ...