i demand happiness!

Wednesday night Monkey and I were waiting the car at his school like crazy people stalking the FedEx guy who had Daniel's new bass (we waited over 2 hours and it never came!!!)  He wistfully said that tomorrow was el dia de reyes and we didn't have anything to celebrate it. 

Some background:

• Daniel grew up in Mexico
• In the past 5.5 years together we have never celebrated this or any of his Mexican holidays
• We let all of our holidays be a bust this year (we didn't dress up for Halloween, we couldn't go home for Thanksgiving, we waited until the last minute to go to my parents for Christmas, and we didn't even count down for New Years.)
• We are trying to be happier people this year

So when he mentioned this holiday that used to be important to him, I knew we couldn't let this one slide too.

I had one day to research this holiday and then surprise Daniel with a celebration.
I stopped off at Target for his gift.  (The Wise Men are supposed to come with their camels and leave gifts in your shoes)  I bought a wallet and a little razor because I thought they would fit neatly in Daniel's shoes

I opened my class by asked the students if anyone knew where I could buy a Rosca de reyes (a cake with a little baby toy in it that they serve at this holiday)  They gave very vague directions to various panaderias.

School let out, and I began driving.  No way was I going to be able to find the places my students were trying to describe.

I found the first panaderia and parked.... then a guy said, "you can't park there!  it's rush hour! you can't park anywhere on the street during rush hour you will get a ticket".  I thanked the guy for his advice thinking, "how could I have made it in Chicago since june and not know this apparently obvious rule??"

I drove around the neighborhood a dozen times, getting tripped up with one-way streets, finding myself trying to make impossible turns, horns were honked  etc etc (I HATE CITY DRIVING!!)

Finally I found a little panaderia with a PARKING LOT!!!!  inside the cakes were in stacks, and they were beautiful!

The lady working there helped me find one with fruit on it and I bought it!!