One year ago yesterday...

...Esau formally asked me to be his girlfriend. Yesterday we were both a little under the weather (and car-less) so we saved the celebrating for today! For starters, who can resist a breakfast buffet? Omeletes, yogurt, granola, fruit, taquitos, tomales, frijoles, freshly sqeezed juice... Los Cebollines has it all. We ate it all too. Maybe that's why I'm so sleepy now! (Or maybe it's because I just guzzled Guatemalan style night-time cold medicine.)

More to come... :)

Almuerzo (Lunch) With the Family

The small table... apologies to anyone with food in their mouth. (That would be you Steven.) Also pictured: Brother Alex in orange, Aunt Blanca in black, Cousin Rocio in blue, and friend Noemi.

The big table.

We also celebrated Esau's grandpa's belated birthday! (His dad's dad.)

They broke out a pair of random eyeglasses to help him read his cake. He managed to make out "Happy Birthday" but kind of fudged up the rest.

Lighting the candles before singing "Happy Birthday." And believe it or not, they sing it in English! It ends up sounding more like "Happy Beerthday to you... Happy Beerthday to you..."

A tender moment. He's a very cozy old man.

A little help blowing out the candles. He probably would have done okay had they not been the relighting kind! No birthday is complete without a little trickery.

And when blowing doesn't work, smashing does the trick.

Father with two of his six children. Esa's dad Marco Tulio and Aunt Blanca. His Grandpa's name is Armenio.

Grandpa with 5 of his 13 grandchildren. Rocio, Jacob, Esa, Alex, and Steven.

Father-in-law with his son-in-law and daughter-in-law. Esa's Uncle Jose and Mom Blanca.

Jacob and Esa playing with Franchesca... a fairly common sight!

Grandpa hugging Grandma... but they're on different sides of the family. Grandpa said his wife couldn't hit him if she found out because it wasn't his fault.

I feel like his grandchild too!

All the babies that were at the party. They keep things light.

Ahh... Pastel! What we've all been waiting for!

Mama Alice with babies Poogi (Andy) and Franchesca. Poogi drinks A LOT of pacha!

Franchesca

Aunt Blanca giving little Karlita a lick of frosting. My motto is: get 'em started on sugar when they're young.

What are babies for if you can't kiss them up?

Blankie goes everywhere. (Photo courtesy of Esa)

Christmas... at the beach?

Yes, Christmas Day this year was spent at the beach. Esau keeps saying that Santa doesn't come to Guatemala because of the heat, so instead of waiting around for the big guy in red to show up, we decided to go cool off. It was a wonderful day... I even escaped without a sunburn! We got to coddle Karlita on the two hour car trip, and that definitely added to the fun.

And the coddling continues...

This is where we set up camp. I'm sure Grandma would be real pleased that I caught her mid-bite! The only face that you can see very well belongs to Esau's Aunt Blanca.

Another mid-bit shot. Just to give you an idea of HOW good that turkey was.

He poses when I ask nicely.

And just when I thought she couln't get any cuter, Mom got out the bathrobe.

Cousins Steven and Freddy

Playing with Francesca

Baby Andy asleep on the beach, missing all the action, as usual.

A day at the beach is definitely not complete without this scene! (The head poking out belongs to Esau's dad... the señora in pink is his mom.)

After the big ordeal.

Me. There was a fabulous sunset in the background that I'll leave to your imagination!

La Karlita Bonita

Karla, or Karlita, (in Spanish they like to add "-ito" or "-ita" to everything to give it a fond feeling) celebrated her 1st Christmas in Guatemala while I celebrated my 3rd. As you can see, looks-wise she is the perfect baby, and she has a temperament to match. I fell in love at once. Luckily, she's part of the family - Esau's first cousin.

Christmas Eve in Guate is always crazy. When these people celebrate they make as much commotion as possible. We're talking lots and lots of firecrackers. :) I had planned on taking quite a few pictures of the family that night, but as it turned out, no one was in the same place at the same time, so I set my sights on Karlita instead!

Francesca

This is Francesca, daughter of a couple that is staying with Esa's family during their visit to Guatemala. Her dad was born in Guatemala and her mom is of Mexican heritage, but they live in Chicago now. She, like most kids, is probably cutest while sleeping, but she managed a close second while playing with these flowers from my welcome bouquet!






This is her dad, Carlos, and oh-so-gloriously-chubby little brother, Andy.













A Cheeto-stained face. :) We were fast friends after she figured out you could view the pictures immediately on my camera screen. She has taken to calling me "niña" which means "girl" in English. She'll sometimes wander around shouting "Niña! Niña!"







Flower behind the ear pose.











Esa and her have been tight pals for quite some time now.














She swiftly removed all the petals from the flowers and proceeded to toss them about. Another Francesca-ism: she speaks both Spanish and English, so you never know what will come out of her mouth. One thing that comes out quite often, though, is "I like to move-it, move-it. I like to move-it, move-it"... the words of a song from a popular kid's movie. It took me right home again because JJ is also in the move-it, move-it phase. His version is slightly different though: "I like it movie, movie. I like it movie, movie." It makes so much more sense when you think about it... he really liked the movie!