All of our kids and grand kids live out of state. Usually we alternate travel to either Santa Fe or Atlanta to spend the holiday with one of the families. Sometimes however we stay home and have the parents buy useless toys for the kids and we reimburse them. Every year however, we send out generous checks to our favorite charities.

Christmas is just another day when there are no little ones around. And we spend a quiet day at home. This year however, we decided to play Santa for some friends. Wifey and I went holiday shopping today and got it all done in four brief stops.

Ocean State Job Lot a discount store that has just about anything your little heart desires. I didn’t go into the store and left all the shopping to her. I have no idea what was in the bags. I hope its cookies for me.

Next was Steve’s Wine And Spirits to restock our bar. Some Titos Vodka and Copa de Oro, a wonderful inexpensive and, in my opinion, a much better substitute for Kahlua when making Black Russians. Or…for fans of the Big Lebowski, White Russians.

A six pack of Sam Adams Larger to keep on hand. One of our dinner guests on Sunday is a beer drinker There will probably be two or three bottle still in the fridge on Labor Day.

We also bought a special Russian Rivers Chardonnay for our friends who invited us to dinner on xmas eve. The wives have celebrated this holiday since they were in grade school. A good wine is always a wonderful thank you gift.

CVS for a couple of big box gift cards for her favorite workers at the animal shelter.

Finally, some goods at Bask, our local “Bake Shop”, for our special friends.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It was an hour drive through the jungle on dirt roads and over raging rivers to get to the beach and the surf town of Montezuma. We had to exit our 4×4 and walk across the river to test the deepness. On the way back to our house we ran into a jungle traffic jam. Eventually we got to our humble abode, safe as a Iquana in a bedroom.

Day 1 and Travel to Costa Rica

Caboya, CR

The family gathered in Costa Rica for a two week adventure in the jungle. Today’s video we drove and trekked to a surf area. On the way we picked up a hitch hiking father and son from Germany. The planned on walking the 10K to their rented home and had second thoughts Dad stuck out his thumb when they heard us approach. It was an easy decision to share our ride with them.

Click Here for Travel and day one of our adventure.

The family gathered in Costa Rica for a couple of weeks. The boys live in Atlanta, Boulder and Austin, which is a special treat when most of us get together for an extended reunion. I’m still working on the videos of the family and the first one is HERE if your interested