Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Eve: 

We slept in!  Until almost 8am :)  I am currently among the ranks of the early to bed, early to rise, but this will all change on January 12 I am sure!  Then, we called a taxi and went into town.  Dad asked me, upon arrival in Belmopan, if his backpack screamed "tourist", my response was "every part of us screams 'tourist'!"

Quite a few places were closed for Sunday, but we managed to get into the Bull Frog Inn and snag some internet and coffee.  Then, we walked to the Asian business section on the far side of town and visited some shops there.  We passed a very drunk man, and Dad made us cross to the other side of the road to avoid walking next to him.  We enjoyed shopping at the M&J Supermarket!  Dad found some vienna sausages (of course) and instant coffee to supplement what we get from Mrs. Choc (of course) and I found some very fantastic shoes, and DVDs of "The Dictator" "The Campaign" and "Moonrise Kingdom"!  We had lunch at the Happy Family Restaurant with a bunch of Amish field hands and a few families.  Then, we walked all the way back to the other side of town to attempt to talk to the family, and they had already left for church.  So, we had ice-cream, and Dad had another coffee, and we walked back to the market near the bus-stop and taxis.  Dad loaded up on bananas, oranges, and apples.  As we were on our way home, Dad had the taxi stop back by the supermarket and he bought a huge machete (which he is currently in the process of sharpening).  Afterwards, we finally got a chance to chat with Mom and the boys.

As I was laying in bed trying to sleep, I heard very loud Christmas music.  It started out very loud, and then got a little softer, and then ramped back up again.  I could hear Dad shuffle around in his bed and I didn't want him to get agitated at those crazy people playing Christmas music super late at night (like around 8pm), so, I finally got irritated enough and grabbed my flashlight, slipped into my flip-flops and prepared to let them have it.  As I was reaching for the door handle, I noticed that Dad had my computer hostage on his bed and was clicking through Christmas music.  The culprit was my very own father!!  So, naturally, I made him turn it down.

Christmas Eve:

It was another work day for us, so Ernesto picked us up at 630am.  Cleofo and his son, Marcus, had torn down Mrs. Choc's kitchen, so we ate breakfast inside his house.  The new kitchen should be finished soon!  We tried to locate the mound that I had surveyed in 2010 (M73) that was farthest away from Yalbac.  Unfortunately, due to the overgrowth, it was impossible.  We then decided to survey a mound close to Yalbac.  Again, it took forever to find.  Even with a mound ~100-200m from the main site, it took us 3 hours to find it.  Dad, all the while, was hacking around with his blunt machete.  We managed to survey the final ceremonial mound by late afternoon and we headed back.  At the moment, Dad and I are preparing our fantastic Christmas Eve dinner extravaganza.  We are having four cheese instant potatoes and I am adding Ramen noodles to the menu.  Dad is making the potatoes and (of course) reading all the instructions loudly to our room, with no intended audience.  We will have ourselves a Merry Christmas yet :)