Another year, another trip around the sun! The older I get the faster they seem to go.

Panama celebrates Christmas with parties and many fireworks on Christmas Eve, climaxing at midnight. Then, greetings are exchanged, gifts are opened, and Christmas dinner is served.

New Year’s Eve is similar but with even more fireworks! People who want to seriously celebrate will have parties and fireworks culminating at midnight, then go clubbing and dancing all night, followed by New Years Day at the beach. Some people also make muñecas or effigies filled with fireworks that are burned at midnight. All the bad things from last year and the wishes for the coming year are blown away in the smoke. I think it’s a cool tradition. A muñeca in our neighborhood gets carried around on the back of a truck with much honking and hollering before it gets burned.

We are not the as serious about celebrating as some, so the neighborhood fireworks and greetings were enough for us. But I could hear the music from the club across the river until well past 2 AM. Today we walked a bit, visited the neighbors, and will spend the rest of the day chillin at home. Our dog is sure glad the fireworks have calmed down, and she still refuses to go outside without a lot of coaxing. It must have been miserable for her when she was a street dog.

On other matters, I am happy to report the band gig went very well on Sunday night. Joel’s rewiring job worked and the bass sounded wonderful all night (remember the Saturday night challenges with the dead bass guitar?). Our substitute drummer was great, there was a large, happy crowd of locals, vacationing Panamanians, and tourists, and we all had a great time.

Other than that, summer continues with hot, sunny and breezy weather. Life in Panama is good. We wake up every day thanking our good fortune for this life.

Here’s wishing all of you a great year ahead! Feliz y Prospero Año Nuevo