Feliz Navidad!

So our big dinner and celebration falls on Christmas Eve.

We had turkey, ham, mashed taters, stuffing, macaroni & cheese, green bean casserole, cranberries and a pumpkin cheesecake. Ingredients were not too hard to find. Stuffing is not readilly found ready to be made. But with some tostada pan (toasted bread) seasoned crutons and various veggies and spices, it came off well.

The potato sticks for the green bean casserole were  slightly more challenging. I was delighted to find fried onion strips, but had to settle for some crushed sour cream and onion pringles :)

I realized at Thanksgiving time that canned pumpkin would not be found here, so I had asked Zach to bring a can with him from the states.

All the food turned out very yummy!

Here is Tomas Turkey heading into the oven.

Eduardo giving me an early Christmas present by sweeping!

Max and Rosie were my constant companions through out the food preparations.

I gave the dog's their x-mas presents (rawhide chewies) but they made quick work of them and were soon back at my heels in the kitchen.

Zach and Rosie reading on the couch while everything is cooking.

Tomas emerges from the oven looking lovely!

We sit down to stuff ourselves!

And then of course afterwards.. well.. you know!

The guys showing their new gifts. Ed with his new jets hat, Zach with his new Spanish study materials... and of course new underwear and socks!

Christmas Day our tradition is to head to the beach. This year Zach and I tried our hand at some fishing. I managed to catch a little puffer fish again. I think I am going to retire from my fishing career though. I was nearly in tears trying to get the hook out of the poor fellows mouth to free him. It was a bit too traumatizing for me and the fish.

This little girl was a new friend at the beach.

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Nothing like a little sunburn on Christmas Day!

It was a lovely Christmas.

Hoping all of yours were also wonderful and the New Year brings smiles, love and adventures to all!

Let it snow.. not likely.... more like pull out the SPF 30

Trying to get in the christmas spirit. The weather has been averaging the last few days around 88 degrees. Beautiful fo sure... just not a typical winter wonderland. So getting in the Xmas groove has been a little off kilter. Today I said to my son Zach... come what may, the tree goes up today!

So I put on my most festive sundress.... turned on my specially assembled Christmas music playlist.... And we pulled out the (quite truthfully sad little) fake christmas tree. We had fun trying to decorate the funny little Charlie Brown tree with the strand of garland that isn't quite long enough and my 8 ornaments. Back in the states our 10 ft tree would have so many ornaments you had to double and triple placement on some branches.

Our little Yucatan tree made it's debut last year. I had also decorated it with string popcorn, gingerbread men and candycanes. I thought it was funny that it was such an odd concept for most of the Yucatecans I met to do so. I quickly learned why these were not traditions here... the humidity caused my popcorn to shrivel, my candycanes to drip, and my dogs would patiently wait under the tree for mother nature, moisture and gravity to perform decapitations on all my gingerbread men.

So we decided on the simple minimalist approach this year.

I believe we have a tiny Christmas miracle... we stepped back once done and our little tree is sweet and charming.

Merry Christmas To All!

La Feria (The Fair)

We decided to take a quick jaunt out to the annual state fair. It is set up in a town called Xmatkuil.

It was very reasonably priced. $15 pesos per person to get in (roughly $1.50 usd). Then most of the large shows are also $15 pesos to get in.

Zach and Ed

Ed and Burger King

We decided to go see the Zoological Robots Exhibit

These Robots are huge. For a little perspective, look at the man next to the T-rex. They all were moving robots.

Then we went to the Dolphin show. For $15 pesos they put on a show that was an hour long and extremely entertaining. They had high divers, trained seals and of course the dolphins.

The fair is very large with a lot to do. There are rides, games, livestock and of course, like in the states, lots to eat!

We had an early morning so we called it an evening after the dolphin show.

We will definately go back next year and make a whole day of it.

Happy Pavo Day!

Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday to be away from family. Luckily for Ed and I, we have met such wonderful people since we moved to Merida. Both the school where I work and friends of ours invited us to  Thanksgiving get-togethers. It took the sting out of facebook updates and mobile uploads of yummy festivities back in the states :)


The gathering at the school was held on Saturday. It was great! Lots of fun happy people.

On Sunday we had dinner with our friend Dr. Isaac Trejo and his girlfriend Magdalena. It was her very first turkey. She did fantastic! We enjoyed a lovely dinner with them and their family.

We have much to be thankful for!

All the best to you and your family!