Tis The Season of Aguinaldo

Mexico for a good portion of her history has been an occupied country. Because of these different occupations her laws tend to protect the worker the "everyman" One such law is the requirement of employers to give their employees the gift of Aguinaldo at Christmas time. It is a certain amount of bonus calculated by the amount of time you work, the length of employment and the amount of your wage. Now believe me the formula for calculating a full time employee's aguinaldo is more complicated then the mathematical equations Doc Brown used to figure out the "time-space continuum" necessary to fling the Delorian back to the future :c).

Just to figure Little Dulce's part time bonus will make your eyes cross. Something on the order of the amount of days she works for how much divided by the cycles of the moon in a year, multiplied by squared to the power of 10 minus the days ending in the letter Z plus all Mondays that fall on Friday the 13Th. Oh wait maybe that's not quite it. Anyway the short version is basically 2 weeks of wages. AH but then you also have vacation you have to pay which is also basically 2 weeks of work. There is also a law that says the aguinaldo must be payed no later then Dec. 20th, must be in the form of money.

We only have Dulce that we employ thank goodness. We gifted her last Tuesday with her aguinaldo. Since her birthday was the next day (Weds) we gave her both gifts at the same time.

Now along with the required bonuses Christmas is also the time you are expected to tip those workers that provide services for you. There are the garbage guys. Our garbage is picked up three times a week. These guys get payed next to nothing. Three guys work a truck together. Unlike most cities up north there is no real limits as to how much you put out or how you put it out, or how heavy it is. That is pretty much left up to the crews working the trucks. Of course like everywhere the guys tend to match their accommodating nature to your Christmas Thank you gift. Then there is the guys who deliver your gas (propane) There are two kinds of tanks here. The large stationary ones they fill from their truck tank and the tall, heavy portable ones. If your tank is portable these guys will sling a full tank over their shoulder and carry it in and change it for you. If you live on the 5 floor of a walk up they still haul those tanks up the stairs for you!! If like us you have a large tank on the roof these guys will climb up to the roof the guy on the ground throws the hose to his buddy on the roof and they fill the tank. They don't even have to come in the house to gain access if you don't want them to. Now in my mind they more then deserve a Christmas Thank you!! The mail carriers have their very own day in November but it's nice to put a little something in and envelope for them. There's the old guy that sells that comes by with the daily news paper. Well actually, it's pretty much anyone that provides a regular service through out the year for you.

Could get a bit expensive huh? Actually not really the only ones that are required or that have required amounts is your employees. The rest is what you feel like doing. To be honest with you I always look forward to these little gifts. The work here is very hard, and the pay doesn't reflect that. Remember for most of Mexico's workers the daily wage is about $5.00 US dollars!! :c( It's not much but it is a way of showing the people that provide services for LW and I that we respect what they do.

Cards tend to be a bit unruly to handle especially if you are the guys riding on the back of the trucks (garbage or gas) We pick up a box of the little gold envelopes with flaps just the right size to slip a couple of bills into and still fit into a pants pocket. I do a little festive fluffing and glitter (the easy part) LW on the other hand is the guy who gets up at the crack of O dark :30 to be sure he catches the garbage truck, the newspaper Papa and keeps on eye out for Omar and his sidekick (Gas jockeys) as they go tearing through the neighborhood. :c)

One more thing crossed of the list. I always feel like I'm really making good progress until I go to visit someones blog that has to remind me just how little time is really left!! Why tell me why??? Are they not familiar with a procrastinator's favorite quote?? You know the one I mean "Ignorance is bliss" :c)

Looks like the glue gun is ready to get some serious work done so I hope everyone in Bloglandia has a wonderful day or evening depending on where in the world you are :c)