Dear Dad,

Last night we got a phone call from Reina, the sister of Aurora who is the young woman who helps at the house 2 days a week. Aurora slipped and fell and now has a broken wrist. Reina will come to work until her sister’s wrist gets better. I remember when Mom slipped on some gravel and fell and broke her wrist when playing tennis while we all were in high school. I remember Mom sitting up in bed crying because it hurt her so much and later when the cast was taken off it was never the same as the bones didn’t grow back correctly. Aurora is home with her wrist swollen and in a cast. She was given only an aspirin for pain and will go back to the doctor in a few weeks to see how the healing is doing. On Friday, while hanging up Christmas decorations, I noticed a crack and tiny hole in one of the big windows in reservations. It looks like a rock or even maybe a bullet hole, but after looking at it I didn’t give the window another thought.

In order to repair the window, the bars on the outside and the bars on the inside would have to be removed to get to the glass in order to change it.

The glass window is in a metal frame and the job would have to be completed in one day to keep the office protected. While sitting at my desk today I looked over at my office window and saw a hole in the part of the air-conditioner or R2D2 as I call it, and then saw a broken glass from one of the louvered panes and after a closer look saw holes in two of the window blinds too.

I think the thieves wanted to take out a window and get a hook of some sort on a long pole and try and get items out of my office or off my desk.

After investigating a little I learned that on Saturday night the night guard cornered a pair of would be thieves on top of the roof that covers the back patio where we have a garden and the fish. A patrol car came and carted the thieves off to jail.

Now I am waiting for the alarm company to arrive and explain to me how so much damage could have been done without setting off the motion detector in my office. I am happy that the thieves were stopped but at the same time I know they are once again on the street, because the law states that unless the item stolen has a certain value it is not considered a crime. At home, the neighborhood cats are crashing against all our windows trying to catch the humming birds while they sip sugar water from the new hummingbird feeders we have posted.

It has been so cold here, especially Friday and Saturday and Sunday, that at home I have been turning the oven on and opening the oven door to try and warm up the house. I think the temperature was in the low 50’s.

In order not to get too behind with the house work, I did laundry this morning and arrived at the office a little later than usual.

Crime, like every country you read about, is at an all time high. Thieves are having a field day breaking in homes or office and stealing anything that isn’t nailed down. With Christmas just a few weeks away it will get worse.

If I am in the car alone, I try and remember to keep my purse and all packages or whatever in the trunk of my car. Why? Motorcycles, with a rider and a passenger are pulling up to cars and pointing guns at drivers or smashing car windows and taking anything they can. It happens all the time.

The monthly salaries for police are about $250.00 per month and this is too little to get a good police force to protect the public. Hotels, beaches, homes, cars and offices are being broken into and the thieves are getting away with it. It won’t be too long until everyone starts carrying guns for personal protection. That thought gives me the shivers.

When we moved here, more than 30 years ago, no-one locked their doors, any time of the day or night was safe on the street. The police didn’t carry guns, instead they carried a screw driver to remove your license plate if you were caught breaking a traffic violation. Now, they all have guns.

It is easy to blame, but passing the blame won’t solve the problem nor will carrying a gun, but times have changed and we really have to think about personal safety for our friends and family.

We had a very busy weekend. On Saturday I was able to convince David to take me to the Christmas Bazaar at Country Day School. He didn’t want to go and wanted to play golf instead; but I promised to go to lunch with him at the Pub where a friend cooks Cajun or Louisiana style food on the weekends. ( We have had so much rain the greens on the golf courses are swampy forcing husbands to stay home on the weekends driving wives nuts.) David probably won’t admit to having fun at the bazaar; but we met lots of people we know and even convinced a nice couple to join us for lunch.

Sunday we went to a charity auction for SASSY a private organization for the protection of animals. We gave a prize of 4 tickets as one of the items sold at auction. First there was the silent auction, when donated items were displayed and a piece of paper was placed in front of each item. An entrance ticket was turned in for a program with a number written on the back and this is the number that was written on the list with an amount the person was willing to pay for the item. On the paper was a minimum bid too. I got lucky and was in front of a beautiful brass and beveled carriage lamp when one of the organizers came over and saw that the bid for the lamp, valued at $200 was only $20 and said to me that it was too low, but I said it was because there was only one lamp, and after she told me that it was a pair and the other one was under the table; I placed my bid of $50.00.

I think I must have been the only person who knew that it was two lamps because mine was the only bid. David bid on a beautiful painting but went outside to smoke a cigar with Max, a long time friend, I kept checking and was able to keep adding $5 to

any counter bids. It was a fun four hours drinking wine and seeing old friends, very few of the people who went we knew and this surprised us and those whom we recognized. Once we used to know most of the American community, but not anymore. Anyway, when it was time for the live auction, David and I watched fascinated as people bid on our donated Calypso prize. We were the only prize that got more $ than it was worth. All for a great cause.

Now we have a mouse. The office is going nuts looking for it. I am glad it is a mouse and not a rat. The problem is where there is one there is a whole lot of them. The worry is if a mouse set up housekeeping in the accounting office and made a nest out of all the carefully filed paper work – tons of it.

In my last letter I mentioned that Bryan had packaged all the new crew uniforms for the coming season. Well, I didn’t double check and all the size M shirts are without a logo on the pocket. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Now the shirts, all 12 of them have to be returned to San Jose and then sent out to have the pockets embroidered.

Tuesday

The tech guy from the alarm company is here it install a panic button for the guard at night and to install another motion detector in the salon area. Hammering is loud and annoying but I will have to ignore it until the job is completed, hopefully quickly. While I was at the salon, David received a call this morning letting him know that our shed on the beach had been broken into and missing are two tanks of gas for cooking. The tanks empty are expensive because they are refillable. Also missing are some of the beach chairs, how many I am not sure.

Maybe this is why I have a headache today. Apparently a group of fishermen have been sleeping on the beach with mattresses and they ripped the door off the shed to get at the items inside.

We are working to get a special license to have our campsite and pay a yearly fee to do so. We have been taking care of Tortuga Island and have

been keeping it beautiful for years. Why does not the government understand that if we leave it will turn into a trash dump like most of our coast line? People are pigs and those that are uneducated do not and will never understand the importance of controls. OK I am growling again. It is difficult to keep a cool head when destruction and thievery is so common now. It all happened so fast and it is hard to have patience; patience was never one of my qualities.

On to better news. Today we have been making plans for another trip to Hawaii and California in the spring. We are giving Celiece, Marlon and Bryan tickets for Christmas and today we rented a condo for a week. Marlon has never met you or David’s Mother and this is another reason to make the trip together before we all get any older. We will be in California around Mother’s Day – just like last year but with the whole family.

Marlon is very excited. He has never been to the United States and one of our stops is a day at Disneyland or Universal Studios.

Wednesday

Last year David and I got really sick with the flu. Our office staff is always sick to, so this year we all got flu shots. David went to the pharmacy and talked to the doctor who works there (all pharmacies have doctors on duty)

and convinced her to come to the office and ¨shoot¨ all of us with the flu vaccine for this next year. It is David’s idea to vaccinate everyone, we lost so many days with sick leave and if the employee came to work it was terrible watching everyone cough and have fever and the rest of the awful flu symptoms. Now, if none of us has a bad reaction to the injection we should be safe for a year..

Now I am busy with gift boxes for the 65 employees. I am shocked too at the amount of employees we have. Of course this includes guides and painters and outside mechanics, but we do have more than 50 full time employees working for us. A gift basket is nice. This year I bought plastic buckets for all instead of an expensive basket that will have no use after all the goodies are eaten. Last year I bought a big plastic flower pot and filled it. It was a big success.

Christmas party? Never again. We had too many problems with too much liquor and it is very expensive too. We used to go to the Hotel Fiesta where everyone could eat all day and drink all day and swim all day in the many pools, but this year it is $60 per person. Years past not all employees went and only the crew swam. Bah humbug.

The gift boxes of should I say buckets are filled with nougat or turrone as it is called here, a bottle of peach champagne (with no alcohol) a coffee mug filled with chocolates, a beautiful leather frame for photos, a Christmas candle, a box of Belgian butter cookies, a can of mixed nuts, a flash light that works without batteries – a dooms day flashlight- a Christmas stocking,

marshmallows (they were a big hit last year), a Christmas ornament and if budget allows maybe a package of Hersheys kisses and some Swiss Miss chocolate mix.

Last year I wrapped all the gifts myself and had a sore back for days, this year I am going to get Xochilts and Sara to help me.

We have had one sunny day this week and the rest of the days have been really cold. My feet are cold and I m wearing socks. This is typical weather here for this time of the year, but it is colder than normal. When we left the house this morning, both cats were curled up in their little cat beds that Linda bought for them. They looked warm and cozy and I wanted to curl up with them.

Next week we are flying to Miami for Thanksgiving dinner. Our friends in Miami got us great prices for a 4 star hotel in Coconut Grove where we have stayed before.

Once again we will travel with Jetty and Henry both good friends. Dinner on Thursday promises to be wonderful and we will be a crowd of about 20 people.

I think Thanksgiving is a very important day to celebrate as we all have a lot to be thankful for if we think about it. I am a little disappointed that we won’t be here with the kids, but instead we will celebrate together the week after our return. Besides, Celiece will be on a tour.

Bryan is busy starting up his new business. He is busy with carpenters and getting telephones installed and stuff like that. It is nice to see him excited about something he likes to do. He wants to work for himself and be his own boss. He is a hard worker and I am sure he will do well. I am waiting for Bryan now. He has my car and is running errands. Tonight is Thursday and you know what that means-----------------massage day and I am so ready.

I love and miss you.

Besitos, Cecs