The paragraph below was posted the other day in Richard Detrich's blog (RichardDetrich.com). Gallup asked about 1,000 people in each of 148 countries (150,000 people worldwide) if they were well-rested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned or did something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment the previous day.
In Panama and Paraguay, 85% of those polled said yes to all five, putting those countries at the top of the list. They were followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Latin America is the world's happiest place to be! The richest countries such as Japan, did not make the top ten most positive countries. The United States ranked 33.
I shared this information with Ray. He smiled broadly and commented, "Allison, we are making the right decision."
While at a neighbor's annual Christmas party Friday night, the subject of conversation turned to our move to Panama. The neighbors asked about our vacation there, and we shared that we were taking another trip in March to do some more investigating and researching. Since we spend many weekends at our Lake Anna house, and most of these neighbors have small children, we do not get together often enough with them. This group of friends was very inquisitive and enthusiastic about our decision. They made Ray and I feel at ease talking about the country and why we chose to retire there. With wine and champagne punch in hand, the women discussed the malls. I described the two different one's I had been to in October. The first Panamanian mall being just like Tysons Corner mall which is not too far from my house (unless there is traffic on I-95, so I guess you can say it is very far away--45 minutes can turn into 2 or 3 hours). These women all know that mall and could picture Metromall in Panama a little bit better. The other outdoor mall just across the street, I explained, was more like an outlet mall to the extreme. Inexpensive/cheap. I told them I saw and would actually wear pants and jeans that cost up to $6.99, shorts for $2.99, shirts up to $4.99 and shoes or flip flops $1.99 or even $8.99 depending on the embellishments. And the consensus was "who needs The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and Coach and those high prices, when you are going to a place where you can just kick off you flip flops and be happy and rested"! They suggested we might have many more visitors once settled, and we encouraged them to come check it out!
My daughter and I make dozens of cookies for the Christmas holiday. We always do.
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| Just a few dozen butter cookies we decorated with my sister and family. |
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| The beginning of some chocolate chip cookies. |
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| Many more treats than these to go to my sister's on Christmas Eve! |
We also decorate a gingerbread house annually. This year the house came broken, but we plastered it back with royal icing and carried on with the decorating!
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| This is the mess we made repairing and rebuilding! |
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| Beauty restored! |
While I think I could just not do it, these are two of many traditions I am not ready to give up. Even though I get frustrated having to wear reading glasses now to see the recipes, and because I want to make so many more cookies but what will I do with them all (?), I still love seeing them just pile up! I try to smile while cleaning the measuring cups and spoons and baking sheets for the umpteenth time. I try to laugh a lot when the gingerbread house is in pieces while still wrapped and in the box. I try to come up with another way to decorate that butter cookies-shaped Christmas tree or my side of the gingerbread house. The "tries" don't always work out. But I am going to lose these traditions someday, or they will just change. I will still bake cookies and watch the movie "Elf" with my daughter, but it won't always be here in Stafford, VA. And we might just make one kind of cookie.
I also realize I won't be working when these traditions change, and things will be easier. I will have more time. (Oh, the Federal Government was given tomorrow--Christmas Eve-- off! I wasn't!). What we do with the traditions will be enough. I will be in a country that boasts the happiest people! Panama will be cheerful. I will take that cheer, my rested and relaxed self and all that I have learned and enjoyed to my daughter and family when celebrating the holidays. Traditions can be persisting things (I am also very persistent. You think?), but I will learn to allow them to evolve and change. And I will embrace everyday and every holiday whether here in VA with old traditions, in Panama with new traditions or where my daughter ends up in life with HER traditions.
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