Holidays

The holidays on Bonaire start with the arrival of Sinter Klaus.  It is always an amazing sight to see him and his Pete's arrive by boat.  The Pete's paint their black faces blacker, put on crazy colorful costumes, and hang on the boat riggings doing crazy things.  The band is playing and pleasure boats accompany Sinter Klaus in a water parade while the people of Bonaire cheer from shore.  Children eagerly await his arrival and often dress in costumes like the Pete's. It's a whole day affair.

Next comes Thanksgiving for all the American Expats.  We started our traditional turkey dinner with orange-cinnamon rolls.

 It took me about two months to collect all the supplies for our dinner.  I brought a can of pumpkin from the States for pumpkin pie.  I found fresh cranberries at the store (which was a miracle) in October and put them in the freezer.  A friend snagged a can of cranberry jelly for Rick and donated it to my cause. I had to by a full turkey this year because the boneless breasts didn't show up.  I waited late to buy potatoes and they were all out of the big ones so I had to get a bag of small new potatoes.  All this involved going to 5 grocery stores multiple times to get the supplies.  It felt like I was on a treasure hunt.

 

The best part of thanksgiving are the left-overs.  We love turkey sandwiches, left over cranberries and pie with mounds of Cool Whip.  I even made turkey soup, just like my mother always did, with veggies and turkey.

On Bonaire, the Antilleans do not celebrate American Thanksgiving (big surprise) but they do have Black Friday.  All the stores offer specials, appliances go on sale, Christmas decorations are put up and out for sale and the parking lots are packed. The island just about goes grid lock with all the traffic. We couldn't resist the fun so we ventured out to look around. We came home with hand soap and a squeegee.

It now "legal" to put up our Christmas tree.  

Happy Holidays from Bonaire.