Mother's Day, Costa Rican Style

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in Costa Rica. It's always August 15th, which probably does wonders for having children remember it, as opposed to having it on a random Sunday in May or so (and the fact that it's a national holiday probably helps, as well). So, last night we went to Angela's parents' house to celebrate. Here's her mother, Cecilia:

Last weekend, Angela and I took her mother and her sister / godmother Antonieta to the Termales del Bosque hot springs, one of our favorite tourist spots. I wish I had remembered to bring some pictures of that excursion with me to the internet caf� today, but I didn't so I'll have to put them up another day. Needless to say, it was a fun time, and they seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

The Man Table on Mother's Day. Quite similar to the Man Table on Father's Day, actually, only perhaps with a few people sitting in different chairs. For these holidays, the guys tend to congregate around a case of beer and some jaibols, which is just the Spanish spelling of "highball"... the Costa Rican version is whiskey with Ginger Ale.
In the meantime, the women sit in the kitchen and talk, while the assorted kids and grandkids roam the house, free-range style. It's a pretty fun and noisy enterprise!

Finally, we took a lot of family pictures near the end of the evening when the guys were all nice and buzzed. I won't put up all the families 'cause I've been at this internet caf� for five hours and NEED to get outta here, but here's the "family picture" of me and Angela, with a computer simulation of what our adorable children may look like in the future.

So, to all you mothers out there, including people who'd be called la pura madre, Happy Mother's Day!