We just got back from a trip to Arizona to catch up with family and friends. We had hoped to go a little closer to the holidays, but the airfares were outrageous, even with free miles. We got to spend some good quality time with the kids and grandsons as well as see a few friends plus take a quick trip to Tucson to see Kelley’s sisters. This also gave us a chance to get our grandsons Christmas shopping done, so at this point, we feel as if we are ahead of the game. We also did a little pre-Christmas shopping for ourselves. Kelley got a nice Nikon digital camera with a good size zoom and I got some night vision binoculars with a built-in camera. So now Kelley can get better close up pictures of the animals during the day and I can actually see what roams around in the dark. At least I think I want to see what roams around in the dark. It also gave me a chance to order a bunch of little parts for the Jeep that I couldn’t get here. It was a great visit seeing everyone and hopefully, we will be back up that way come springtime.

The day we got back it was a beautiful sunny 75-degree day. We knew there was suppose to be some cooler weather for the next few days and we welcomed it, after all, how cold could it really get in the tropical jungle. So when we got here we opened up all the windows to get some fresh air into the house that had been closed up for almost two weeks. We were thinking this should be a nice cool sleeping night, well we were wrong. The temp in the middle of the night kept dropping and dropping until it bottomed out at 57° outside, which meant it was 62° inside with all the windows open. It was by far the coldest night we have had down here. Everything is back to normal now, high 60’s in the evenings and 70’s–80’s during the day.

The other day we had a couple of toucans stop by for a visit. Kelley only had her Olympus Tough camera with her at the time and not the new Nikon. This would have been some great photos with the new camera, but we know there will be many more opportunities with all the wildlife around here.

Our third banana plant is starting to produce, and this time they are plantains. Fried plantains are served with most national dishes such as stew chicken with rice and beans. When halved and fried to a golden brown they are so sweet and delicious. Another way to prepare plantains is to thinly slice them and deep fry them into chips with a little salt and spice. We buy these whenever we can as snacks and they are delicious. So now besides our local bananas and apple bananas that we will eat fresh or use in recipes we now have plantains to make some salty crunchy chips with. We originally had seven banana plants, but now with all the new plants that are growing around them we probably have 25 plants or more and some are getting taller than the original ones. Now we just have to keep the monkeys away.

It’s been a while since we have made bacon, so it’s time to make some more. This time we are doing 25 lbs of pork belly, only 20 lbs is for us and the other 5 lbs are for a friend who we’ve done some for before. Over this holiday weekend, we will also be making 15-20 lbs of Italian sausage. I haven’t got the big smoker dialed in quite yet so, for now, we will still be using our small electric one to finish up the bacon. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have time to get the new smoker all dialed in and ready for next time.

We hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. We were invited to a few big thanksgiving parties, but we decided to stay home and do our own, that way we get leftovers. You know what I’m talking about, turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup and all the other good things that come with Thanksgiving leftovers. Thanksgiving seems to be a pretty big thing here, all the restaurants offer traditional turkey dinners with all the trimmings, including pumpkin pie. Of course, there are a bunch of restaurants that put their own spin on it using local favorites. Kelley cooked a 13 lb turkey with all the fixing’s and it was delicious, and yes they do commercially raise turkeys here in Belize. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us you know it is officially the Christmas season and time to put up lights, trees and all that other festive stuff. So come Sunday we will be stringing up Christmas lights on our little jungle home and decorating our little fake Christmas tree, ’tis the season.

Since the Christmas season is upon us, Ruben brought over a couple of poinsettias for us, or as they are known locally as “Nochebuena”. Poinsettias here grow into big trees and you will see them planted around houses as regular landscaping. A couple of months ago Ruben cut a couple branches off his tree and put them in containers and now they are growing like crazy. They are just getting their red leaves and yellow flowers and should be brilliant just in time for Christmas. For now we will keep them in pots until after the first of the year and then we will find a place around the yard to plant them. We never thought we’d be growing poinsettias. We thought we’d be just like everyone else, buy one at Christmas, keep it till it dies, throw it away and repeat next Christmas.

With the holidays here it is time to start thinking about those special drinks you only get once a year such as eggnog. Here in Belize they have their own version of eggnog called Rum Popo, that is only made during the Christmas season. Here is a recipe of one that we have been making for a few years now and it is delicious.

Ingredients:

8 eggs

4 nutmegs

1 oz. cinnamon sticks

4 cans evaporated milk

3 cans condensed milk

1/2 pound raisins

1 pint white rum

Directions:

1. Soak the cinnamon and raisins in rum for 3 days.

2. After the rum is ready, beat eggs well until all lumps are gone.

3. Add evaporated milk and  beat again.

4. Add the condensed milk.

5. Add the grated nutmeg.

6. Remove the cinnamon sticks and the raisins from the rum and add the rum to the egg, milk mixture.

7. Blend well and store in bottles in the refrigerator.

8. Enjoy, I know you will!

One week from now Darren will be back for another visit. The only plans we have is a trip over to Hopkins for a few days. We will definitely get in a little beach time, maybe do a little fishing and for sure try to round up some lobsters to bring back.

That’s about what’s happening around here. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are now getting ready for the Christmas season.