Monday, January 7, 2008

Dia de Reyes

Today is "Dia de Reyes" or "Three Kings Day". It's the day when the three kings visited the infant Jesus and brought Him gifts (remember...gold, frankinsense, and Myrrh). It's a big holiday in the Latino culture, especially in the Dominican Republic, so we decided to make it a part of our Hernandez family tradition.

The way it goes down is like this.

You place some grass or hay outside your door (or on the Christmas tree if you follow Dominican tradition) for the king's camels to eat. And, the kings leave you a present. We decided to put grass outside the door, because putting it on the tree caused a great deal of confusion for the young Eric (papa). He couldn't figure out how those camels got inside the house if the house was locked up for the night.

This year we actually didn't put grass outside the door because we were too lazy to go out in the cold and pick grass in the dark from a nearby lot. It's little Eric's first Dia de Reyes, so he's not going to remember anyway, right? I don't think he will mind that we left that part out, because he got a gift. An alligator shaped xylophone/piano. Here are some pictures I took of him playing with it this morning under the Christmas tree.



This is the classic, "Am I supposed to be touching this?" look. Priceless.

And, now I can take down the decorations and clean the house.

2 comments:

kristi said...

i love that bottom photo. and we had that exact same gator when G&A were small! glad you can finally get rid of the tree. we just did that yesterday and it felt fantastic. (i should say *rick* took everything down...)

Amy said...

How fun! Starting your own traditions are great...and being able to take the easier road (no grass) is SO nice when they're little! We got to see Eric at Prov Place a few weeks ago but missed you 2. Someday I will meet Little Eric in person! I am determined! Happy New Year!