Epiphany Traditions

January 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment

puertoriconavididad Feliz dia de Reyes! I had a friend in high school whose family was British (or at least had spent time living in the U.K., I just remember her lovely accent) and when her family invited mine over for Twelfth Night it was the first I had ever heard of extending Christmastide beyond Christmas day. I had always hated how anti-climatic it was to have all the build up of shopping, cooking and decorating only to be over and done in one short day. My husband is half Puerto Rican, so we have adopted Three Kings’ Day (Los Reyes, Jan. 6) – even if he is Jewish – as our own family holiday. In the past, I’ve cooked a more traditional roast pork and served coquito, and making a Kings cake has been on my “must do” list for a while. Unfortunately, this year my twelve days of baking plans sizzled out early, thanks to a killer cold that I’ve had since Boxing Day. However, the husband came up with the idea of breaking the news to the toddler about our soon-to-depart Christmas tree by pairing it with one last Los Reyes gift. Bribery is, after all, the key to a two-year-old’s heart. Since it is a school/work day, and a rainy, gloomy one at that, we’ll be keeping our dinner simple with some light tapas.