Pancho the Noche Buena Pig

Every year, my family cooks a pig for Christmas (and Thanksgiving, and Halloween, and pretty much any special occasion). Like most Cuban families, our pig is gutted and then splayed out on a humongous baking pan, adobado with mojo and other seasonings, and then left to marinade for a few hours before going into the caja china the morning of Noche Buena. This means that for a day or two, there's a dead pig (looking very pig like with eye balls, hooves, and a curly little pig tail) in plain view of the children--either hanging outside somewhere to thaw or marinading for HOURS on the kitchen counter.

Pancho, the Cordeiro / Quintana family's 2013 Christmas pig, is hanging out in the living room this year (between the coffee table and the big screen plasma TV).  Tomorrow morning, he'll go into the caja china where the viejos will argue all day about how much coal to put in, when to turn it, and how to make the best chicharron.   In the end, the puerco will be delicious and everyone will give credit to everybody else.

My kids used to be scared of the dead pig, but now they don't even notice it.  They associate it with Christmas at Mima's house, along with:
1. Very loud salsa music blaring from every speaker in the house at all hours of the day and night
2. A house full of tias and primos and kids and friends playing dominoes, drinking Black label on the rocks, and yelling at each other to be heard above the music (but God forbid you turn the music down or you'll get called a hippie and told to get back to Texas because aqui hablamos asi! and the music no esta muy alta nada, chica!).
3. My mom running around como las locas (cooking, serving, cleaning, yelling) while everyone begs her to sit down and smoke un cigarrito with us, Haydecita. 
4. My sister and I hiding from my mom (who is on a tear), then getting busted for comiendo mierda.  
5. Dinner finally being served around 10 or 11pm, followed by multiple rounds of cafecito, dominoes and chisme.
6. Kids running around until 3 and 4 in the morning como si nada only to wake everyone up at the buttcrack the next day to rip open presents.  (Actually, sometimes Santa waits til the kids are distracted and shows up at 3am because maybe if they open the presents now, we can all sleep in tomorrow).
7. After the visita goes home, a nice warm cup of cafe con leche to get everyone ready for bed.