A Christmas Tree in the Kitchen ( Jan 7th 2012)

You are probably wondering at the tittle of this post. Well is literal, I did had a Christmas tree in my kitchen….
But let me back up here for a minute.
Since I am a full Puerto Rican I have always tried to teach my children about their Puerto Rican roots and traditions. Therefore we celebrate Epiphany or as is better know back home Dia de Reyes (Three Kings day). This is celebrated on January 6 and if you are wondering why 2 weeks after Christmas is because the Wise Men didn’t get to Jesus till later and not the night he was born. So anyways, they brought Jesus plenty of presents although there is mayor popular knowledge of the main 3 gifts. Accordingly the Three Kings bring children gifts on the eve of the 6th. Because they travel on camels, children collect grass in shoe boxes to leave by the foot of their beds for the camels. In the morning when they wake up most of the grass is gone and a gift is left for the child.

Collecting grass for the camels

I always keep the school age kids home with me on Dia de Reyes. Since is our tradition and is tied to our Christian beliefs, I give it the same importance as Christmas day. Plus it would be cruel to have them wake up to a gift only to have to rush out to school lol. I also keep all the Christmas decorations up including the tree until this day. Actually in Puerto Rico it goes longer as we have what’s known as “octavitas”, which extends the festivities for another eight days. I do not know where or how that originated. In my opinion is just a great excuse to keep the *parrandas* going for another week. I’ll try to explain what parrandas are but it’s a long explanation. Lets just say they are sort like caroling in that a group goes to a friends house to house ( without advance notice and late at night as the object is to wake them up) adding each house members to the group as they go singing for people to open the door, invite them in and offer refreshments. The songs are nothing like Christmas carols even though they are mostly about Christmas time. Parrandas are a lot of fun and they involved a lot of singing, playing traditional instruments like pleneras and congas, eating, some drinking (ok sometimes a lot of it) and friends having a good time together all night long until breakfast time, when the last host is responsible for providing it (Therefore this person usually is the only one told in advance as they will have to feed a lot of people as the group keeps getting bigger through the night).
Sadly I have heard from people in the island that this tradition is sort of slowly dying due to the current state of affairs with crime. Would be really sad if it dies completely as is something that brought people together in a a good way, and within it also conserved another important part of our culture which is Bomba. I wont go into what that is now but is an important part of our culture and it started with the slaves. I have great memories of this nights of fun with my friends and waking up in the middle of the night by “parranderos” going to my neighbors. And nobody ever cared as it was an essential part of life during Christmas and everybody enjoyed it. I remember all of us giggling as we parked our cars a block or so away for the intended target and tried to walk quietly to their house and counting softly to 3 and then screaming “PARRANDA!!!!” and breaking out in song, usually one that started with “Asomate al balcon para que veas mi parranda, asomate al balcon para que veas quien te canta, asomate al balcon, formemos un bacilon” (Come out to the balcony so you can see mi parranda, come out to the balcony so you can see who is singing to you, come out to the balcony lets get a party going) *sigh* The good lol’ days lol.
Ok wow I sure got of track but it was sort of necessary to explain the background of keeping the Christmas tree up after New Year’s.
Anyhow it was time for me to put all the Christmas stuff away. So I took down the stockings, all the ornaments on my “display pool table” (if you are lost about that read prior posts, is explained somewhere in there). Then I proceeded to put away the tree ornaments. Once this was done only the tree remained. Well this year I used a pre lit tree. Is 7 1/2 feet tall and very heavy. Is made of three parts that interlock and through all that lights are connected. Well the issue at hand was that I don’t have a box to put it in as the box it came in was totally broken because the tree had been stored in a barn (long story). I have a huge tub where I keep the tree I used in the prior years, which I didn’t use this year because is humongous , super wide and it takes about 10 super long strands of lights that have to be manually put on to lit the whole thing properly. I didn’t have the space for it in the living room with the pool table there, nor the desire to put on that many strings of lights on it. Ok so the problem is that tree is still stored in the tub, so back to the issue, I had nowhere to put the current tree in. So I decided that since the back room on the other side of the house is not being used and has a big “closet” I could just put the whole tree, still together in one piece in there. I had already stored all the Christmas filled tubs in there. So now the question was how to get it there…
As you may have noticed from other posts once I get into my head that I want to get something done I can be pretty stubborn or determined, however you want to look at it, about getting it done. So I got a piece of cardboard and with effort and danger of the whole thing toppling on me I managed to get the base of the tree on the piece of cardboard. This made the process of pulling it (dragging, whatever) the giant across the tile floor without damage to the floor or to my ears. Still it was no easy job, as the giant is pretty heavy. Not to mention my kitchen is a galley kitchen and this was the way to go through to the laundry room and then to the back room on the other side of it (across a hallway). Yes, I know, I am insane.

So I managed to get the tree in the middle of my kitchen after much pulling, pushing and scratching of my arms and face. And there it was, a Christmas tree sort of stuck in the middle of my kitchen! Now it was either finish moving it or having to go in semi circles back and forth to be able to get anything out of the fridge and then around again to take it to the stove to cook lol. So I kept my work out (I can see my biceps getting toned hahahaha) and managed to get it in front of the fridge ready to go through the door to the laundry room. That’s when I hit the biggest snag. The ceiling is low. You would have to look at the house to understand better but to give you an idea this house has a whole section that was added to it many years after it was built, additions done by the original owner by himself. It is to that side I was slowly but surely moving the tree to until it became stuck.

See the low ceiling and the door frame? lol

Eureka!!! lol

It took a lot of leaning it, pulling, an sheer determination but I got it through the door into the laundry room, more of less in one piece (I am referring to me) where I decided that was enough out of the way and left it where the drier should be lol. And that was that!