Saturday was a busy day. When I left my home at 8am it was cloudy and drizzling but I could see that the sun was shining ever so brightly just on the other side of the valley, where I would be spending my day. (It had been over a week since I had seen the sun.) It was going to be a great day of celebrations.
I went with my tica family and two other gringas to Santa Ana (a town only 30 minutes away) to celebrate my tico dad’s (Willy) 60th birthday and also to celebrate my tico parents (Willy and Cecilia) getting married. I had no clue until a week ago that they weren’t even married; imagine my surprised when they told me of their plans. We helped decorating, food preparations and serving the food to about 35 family members. It was a sweet and fun afternoon and it was made perfect by the perfect weather we had.
Since Latinos have a different concept of time, Abbey, Mary and myself were able to enjoy several hours just chilling out in the sun. The party was said to start at noon and then the wedding at 12:30pm and the eating at 1pm. Now, I knew it was going to be a little later than that but I had no clue. The last people, Willy’s parents, arrived a little after 2pm. Then the festivities began.
After the party and tearing down, Willy and Cecilia dropped Abbey, Mary and me at the Festival de la Luz (Festival of Light) Parade downtown. We had no clue how that was going to turn out since most of the city was downtown. It ended up we were dropped off at almost the beginning of the parade route and we got a perfect spot to stand.
Again the culture of the slow paced life showed up. Although there weren’t too many floats it took several hours for them to pass us. Unlike the states, we had plenty of time to study each float and really enjoy them, sometimes too much time. I believe the parade route was only close to 2 miles but it took over 5 hours for the parade to go the entire length. We were able to be home by 8:45pm whereas our friends who were closer to the end of the route left the parade early at 10:30pm and hadn’t seen all the floats.
There were some really cool floats and it was fun to see. It was something I’m glad I got to see and experience. Overall it was a great day with both summer and Christmas mixed into one day. To see more pictures of the day check them out at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=229434&id=1208485417&l=84829d4537
Abbey, Mary and I - the gringa daughters of Willy and Cecilia. 
After the wedding meal we celebrated Willy's birthday with dessert. The two boys are their grandsons. 
Me at the parade and yes it is that chilly out there. 
Part of one of the many floats. 
Another fun float.
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