Very blustery night in the tropical highlands - Winds, rain and cold - electric blankets on and open fire roaring through really dry pine wood and fire cones.  5 yr old in bed asleep. 

Lots of Santa questions today:" Mum, where do all those presents come from - does he take them from stores after they close or does he make them?"; "Mum when you called him to put me on the bad list - who answered the phone was it an elf and what did it sound like?"; "Do you think if I leave out two stockings he will think I have a sister and fill both".  

Time for Santa to do his thing.   Happy Christmas to you all.

Cool morning with lots of rainbows on all sides; This one is a double.  Drinking coffee, our own (toast, chocolate........nutty are my first impressions).    About to light a fire on the terrace and roast chestnuts.

Still picking coffee and we will be going on well into January.  My main worker is even coming 'off' vacation to wear my bee suit tomorrow and pick around the hives.   Good for him.  I am otherwise occupied with just 3 days left to Christmas.

The orange harvest will be over soon, probably in about 2-3 weeks.   So a final push to candy oranges.  My maid peeled about 300 or so for extra Christmas money over the last couple of days........kitchen is full of rind steeping in syrup and in various stages of processing. Fridge jam packed with juice.

We have done most of the workers food baskets.  Another trip to David today for things to finish them off.   This year, we are going to help out a family who used to live on the farm.   A single mother with three children who is making around $26 every two weeks ($52 a month) working full time.  Yes, it is not legal but it happens.

Christmas shopping trip in close 100 degree weather down the mountain in David is tough.  On the other hand, here you get service.   You do not have to carry your bags around the shop or to your car and people are there to help you find what you need.  There is also excellent wrapping services in most shops.  All you have to do is find the shop (not as easy as it sounds); Find parking (even harder);  check over all merchandise more than once and thoroughly (Here there is a very high incidence of returns, not quite right things and wonky parts) and then stagger in and out in the extreme heat.  

Then bananas - yes, what happened to all my bananas? Not just my bananas but all the bananas in this banana rich town.  I like to have a supply by the terrace so we can watch birds when we relax out there - something I am looking forward to over the holiday.

Well, the coffee pickers have an appetite for them.   I would love to know how much of the diet is banana, but I bet it is somewhere between 10-30% if you include plantains.  There must be 5-10 thousand Indigenous camping out in Boquete for the coffee harvest and that amounts to a lot of bananas.   So, my birds are not getting so many these days, the horse is getting carrots, the rabbit has been eating grass and I have not had one for breakfast for nearly a month.... 

Lastly, what is all that sound of gunfire?  Sounds like someone is firing rounds day and night in the Barrio above me.  I feel like I'm under attack.  Well, it turns out it is fireworks.  It is normal.  It will last until the New Year.

4 days to go until Christmas;  All the Christmas flowers are out in the garden the Amaryllis and the Poinsettias.   I did buy a couple of baby Poinsettias for the house but what  a joy to have the Amaryllis outside in the flowerbed. 

Everyone on the farm seems to be making this stuff at home in their kitchens.  The bottles of rum I am giving out get processed into something like this back home in the kitchens around Boquete.   

Thought I would try this rum punchy egg noggy thing.  I have a cold and the Christmas thing is exhausting.   Found this little bottle sitting in Felipe Motta's refrigerator in the David Store.   Felipe Motta is a great drinks shop in Panama that I would trust not to poison me.

Feels a bit like Alice in Wonderland.  There is no ingredients on the bottle or sell by date.  Just a pretty label saying it was made in Diba's bakery and giving her cell phone number.   

Man is it good.   As well as lots of rum, eggs and cream there are lots of nuts.   Feeling better already - certainly no chance of this shrinking me.     

Lots of smelly dollars seem to be flying out of my purse this month.   Smelly because money does smell bad and the rainy season takes even more of a toll on paper.  Sitting around in damp pockets seems to  bring out the nasty aroma in money like nothing else.   Here it is a cash economy, most of the workers do not have bank accounts, so there is no avoiding the evil smell of money.

December is an expensive month.  Just as well we are selling some coffee for cash.   Tomorrow is pay day 15th December.  Pay day here comes twice a month 15th and 30th.

First there is the regular pay.  This goes out whether or not there is work.   For example the schools all get paid for a full December even though most of it is holidays.

Then there is the Decimo (I think that is what it is called).  It is half the months salary that gets paid on top of the regular salary twice a year - once in December.

Then there is the holiday/severance money.  This is an additional months salary.  In my case this is also coming due in December. This is so one of my workers can get a coffee picking job during his vacation.   It is not obligatory to pay this every year  but it is better for me to get good work from individuals that know there is no massive cash dis-incentive to fire them.  

Lastly, there are the Christmas baskets.   For the workers, big food parcels of treats : Chocolate, cookies, nuts, rum, hams and so on.

Thank goodness Christmas comes but once a year.