It'S A SmaLl WorLd Holiday Blog Hop: Three Wise Men in Puerto Rico

Merry Christmas, everyone!!! You must be arriving here from Nicole's blog at http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com/. I want to thank Jess at http://www.kinderstampo.com/ for giving me the opportunity to talk a little about Christmas in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico's Christmas season is the longest ever, starting shortly before Thanksgiving day and  lasting until Three Kings Day on January 6. Yet, this can extend until "Las Octavitas", eight days after Epiphany. LOL Homes are decorated with lights, Christmas trees and scenes of the Nativity. The season is famous for it's delicious typical dishes like roast pork, rice with pigeon peas, cooked green bananas and "pasteles", made of mashed plantains or yucca, filled with meat and wrapped in the leaves of the banana tree where they are cooked. Desserts are rice pudding made with coconut milk) and my favorite: "tembleque" which is a cream made with cornstarch, sugar, and coconut milk. It is served cold. The puerto rican eggnog is the "coquito", which is the same recipe as eggnog but with the addition of coconut milk.
 
On December 25th, Puerto Ricans celebrate the birth of Jesus. Since the 1940's it has become part of Puerto Rico's Holiday traditions that Santa Claus brings gifts to the children.

On January 5th, the feast of Epiphany's Eve, children place water and grass under their beds for the Three Kings (Three Wise Men). The Three Kings leave the presents under the bed, after the camels "eat the grass". On the morning of January 6 ("Dia de Reyes") children wake up to see what Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar left them. Epiphany commemorates the day in which the three wise men arrived bearing gifts for Baby Jesus,  twelve days after he was born.

Aren't Puerto Rico's children the luckiest: Santa and "The 3 Kings" !!! My daughter Diana is even luckier; her birthday is December 23rd !!!!!!!! LOL

My project is about the THREE WISE MEN (or 3 KINGS). I made 3 candles with one King on each: Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar.

Lets do it:

• Cut 3 strips of cardstock.
• Emboss and adhere to candle. I used Terrifically Tacky Tape to adhere everything to the candle.
• Adhere a golden ribbon to the top and bottom of the cardstock strip.
• Add gems

• Cut the shapes of the 3 Wise Men from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  I print and cut the images on my Imagine and colored the shapes with the Snow Angel cartridge (which makes it so much faster).

• Decorate with Stickles and rhinestones. I also used heat embossing to create the metallic colors.

• Adhere the Three Wise Men to the candles.

                   

• Put candles on a candle holder with raffia.

It's time now to hop on to Liz at http://www.lizspaperloft.blogspot.com/ to see how what she has created for us. If you get lost along the way. Here is a list of all participating blogs. Remember to leave a comment on eacho ne of the blogs, so that you can win the Grand Prize: A Holiday Scrap Box with thiese products: Unity Stamp Co, Peachy Keen Stamps, Lindy Stamp Gang, Preserve Your Memories II, Imaginisce, Helmar...

Jess - http://www.kinderstampo.com/


Christine Wilson-Dunbar -   - http://chrisscreations.blogspot.com/


 

Shelley - http://heartstring-designs.blogspot.com//

Vickie - http://twochicksonalimb.blogspot.com//

Sigrid - http://lovescrapreflect.blogspot.com//

Meighen - http://scrappin3rdeeschik.blogspot.com//

Mariam - http://mariamsatchell.blogspot.com//

Linda- http://www.krazyqulling.com/

Madison- http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com//

Pam - http://pammejo-scrapbookflair.blogspot.com//

Christine Hatchell - http://www.scrapbookingtechnique.blogspot.com/

Jessica-Creative Stamper - http://www.thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/

DDscrafts- http://craftydeb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com//

Gaby - http://www.gabycreates.com//

Lisa - http://bitbythecricutbug.blogspot.com//

Nicole - http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com//

Martha - http://dreamofcrafting.blogspot.com/ - YOU ARE HERE

Liz - http://www.lizspaperloft.blogspot.com//

Jessica Baker - http://www.thatzuneek.blogspot.com//

Cheryl - http://cheryl-gibson.blogspot.com//

Jess - http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kinderstampo.com%2Fp%2Fits-small-world-blog-hop.html&h=991f6