Friday 12/31/21 Up at 9:30am, Hazy 65 degrees (77-61) at Erick's

Friday 12/31/21 Up at 9:30am, Hazy 65 degrees (77-61) at Erick's 

It's a BIG day today at the Erick and Judith's home.  More eating and drinking!!!  

Here is a photo of Erick and Armando trying to figure out how to insert the rubber gasket that fits into this pressure cooker.  It was funny to see them in action.  Takes a village, that's for sure.

In the meantime Moreno and I try to stay out of the busy kitchen.  That place has a lot of traffic ALL DAY LONG.  Eating, drinking, talking, having fun!!!!  We enjoyed the relaxing time in the front yard.

Erick and Armando (who is the godfather to at least one of the girls if not both) have a great time together.  He is also from Panama and met Erick in Panama when they were VERY young.  Now life still offers them opportunities to be close.  This year at least, Armando is working for COPA Airlines and is based out of the Atlanta, LA airport.  He had to go to work during the time we were all there.  His wife and daughter were also there but had to eventually head back home to Roswell, NM.  Ideally they will join Armando in Atlanta in the near future.

Finally it was time to set up the food and decorations for this New Year's Eve Gala.  I made my creamed corn dish.  Eldon cooked a beef roast (from one of our Harvest Host camping spots), some beans and helping with other stuff.  There was also potato salad, rice and chicken Panamanian style, rum cake and more I'm sure.  It may look small in this photo, but Eldon had to climb pretty high to score the photo.

Here are some photos of all the people present.  Small enough to enjoy each other but big enough to make it feel festive.  

Even Moreno was given a party hat for the occasion.  

Once the fireworks and noises started Moreno was very scared and I went to the Alto and kept him company.  His eyes look like he is the one to scare anyone but he was VERY scared.  

We all got to see the NY Times Ball fall at Midnight and then everyone went outside to the back patio to see the fireworks.  Not Moreno and me.  Eldon can tell you better how that all went back there.  Well, maybe not as "somehow" he and Erick ended up in the pool, fully dressed of course (fortunately actually) and then "why not" did it again.  Boys will be men, until they drink too much and then ... into the pool they go.  Fortunately, their blood alcohol content kept them totally freezing to death as it was in the low 40's and so too was the water.  They seemed to find it "invigorating".  Boys to men, men back to boys.

Happy New Year to all of you and I appreciate your friendships all these years and look for many more years to build on these  memories.