In South Florida How Do We Spend Christmas Day?

Why, we spend it in the pool heated to 88 degrees in the sunshine and 78 degree weather, sunny and warm!

So when you are tired of shoveling snow we have wonderful real estate for sale down here!

Of course we still follow all the traditions of my family. My family is from Latvia and the other part is from Ireland. We have kept our traditions alive for over a century and probably a lot longer than that. We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with opening gifts one at a time. One person goes and gets a gift from under the tree and gives it to the person it is for; that person opens the gift, thanks the giver and hugs the person who gave them that gift and then goes to choose another gift to give to someone. With 6 children in our family this can take quite a while but we have not ever deviated from this tradition as it instills patience and good manners in our children. It also teaches them to appreciate the gifts more. 

Two of my sons had to work in Christmas eve this year so we changed it to the next day on Christmas day but we followed the same tradition. Another tradition that we have in Latvia is making Piragi for Christmas. This is a crescent type dough filled with bacon, ham and onion and then baked til golden brown. These have been passed down for generations along with the recipe. I do not eat meat any longer so I do not eat these. But when I did, they sure were delicious. As a child I remember how I could not wait to get to my grandmother's house for Christmas so I could eat Piragi. Some of my children are vegitareans and some are not. So we have something for everyone. I baked all day on Monday along with my daughters making the once a year sweet cookies and candies for Christmas.

We ate dinner around 2 p.m. and then began opening gifts at 4 p.m. Of course that was Tristan's favorite part. He is only 5 and it is so easy to buy gifts for a 5 year old! Easy to please! Now, my older children and adult children, well, they are not so easy to get gifts for however they are appreciative of all their gifts.

We started the weekend out with seeing a movie, The National Treasure, Book of Secrets on Friday night. Saturday afternoon we finished our Christmas shopping and in the evening we finished our grocery shopping. Sunday we went to Church and had a wonderful Christmas program. Monday was the baking day and Tuesday was Christmas. On Monday, I came down with some horrible cold or flu. I held myself together until the last gift was opened on Christmas late in the afternoon and by 6 p.m. I was in bed nursing a fever. Not my choice of how to spend my Christmas evening. I wanted to play with Tristan with all his new toys and games. I was very thankful that my daughter was here to play with him and take care of his needs and put him to bed so that I could just stay in bed and sleep this whatever it is off! 

So even here in sunny Florida you can still catch a cold!

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year and may you be blessed with prosperity!  

Contact Nestor and Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtors®, International Properties and Investments, Inc. Licensed Realtors® in Florida at 561-753-0135 to list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth, Hypoluxo Island, Lantana, West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County Florida. We are accepting referrals.

Copyright © 2007 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved. *In South Florida How Do We Spend Christmas Day? *