We have had our first Christmas in our new home! We've had a great time with lots of partying and eating- so some things are the same worldwide. Last Saturday night (the 20th) we had our first annual owners posada (Christmas party). It's a tradition in Mexico for neighbourhoods to close their street and have a big block party to celebrate the season. We had ours in the large palapa by the main pool. We walked around the complex a few weeks ago to deliver invitations to our pot luck party. We were very pleased with the number of people who came. It was fun meeting the neighbours outside our little "inner horseshoe". Quite a few Mexicans attended so with them and all of us from other countries (Canada- 7 provinces, USA, England, Germany and probably more) , we had a wonderful assortment of food. Dan and Sheryl set up a sound system so we had music all night. At one point we had just about all the ladies, both Mexican and gringas, up dancing. At one point we rotated turns and every single one of us hopped onto the table to do a little number while the rest of us clapped to the music. It's amazing how we were able to have conversations with so many of these Mexican people who speak little or no English while most of us speak so little Spanish.
A couple of days before Christmas our neighbours Tony and Maureen and their guests from England went down south to visit Maureen's sister, who is building a home just outside Barra de Navidad. Gail volunteered me to babysit their little kitty Poppy. They left us a little ceramic gingerbread house filled with candy to thank us.
Christmas Eve I made a batch of Lea's wonderful Beef Bourguignon and invited Scott and Nancy over for the evening. They brought us a beautiful Mexican pottery bowl. During the day I made three of the Honey Almond Twists I've been making for a few years now. I gave one to Nancy and Scott, one to Jack and Anne and kept the other for us.
We were surprised on Christmas morning to get a little gift of gourmet ground coffee and a Christmas card from Greg and Shirley. Next year we will have to be better organized and bring down some Christmas cards for our new friends.
I insisted that Gail had to buy me at least one little thing to open on Christmas Day. I bought her a set of shot glasses (amazing that we had none yet!) and she surprised me with a beautiful hand made shoulder bag, a set of two ceramic Mexican bowls and a bottle of homemade Limoncello from the Italian restaurant close to us. So I was spoiled for sure! Gail said it was the most fun she ever had Christmas shopping. I dropped her off in the town square and she walked to the market, in shorts and sandals, sunglasses on, no traffic, no mall parking, no heavy winter clothes and no crowds.
Our friend Linda and her family invited us for Christmas dinner. I had brought Christmas crackers from home and they were a huge hit. There were twelve of us for dinner as Linda had invited other people as well. Two of them were from Calgary and were the only ones who had ever heard of Christmas crackers. They just don't have them in the states. Dinner was fabulous including the sweet potato delight- a southern dish that I had never had. After dinner we went up to the palapa on the roof of the building and watched the sun set (photo above). Linda lives on the other side of Bucerias, close to the Decameron and other resorts. We could see the resorts in front of us and the sun set behind. It was a lovely end to the day.
On boxing day, six of us went to a real Mexican seafood restaurant and had a PLATTER of food.
This is what was included: a bottle of tequila for the table (alas I couldn't partake as I was driving), fish soup, tortillas, crackers, a mountain of shrimp cooked three ways, salad, bread, a chunk of crab, bananas baked in a sweet sauce and a kahlua type of cocktail, all for $99.00 pesos, the equivalent of $9.00 Canadian! We had so much food we took a box home for lunch yesterday.
This morning we went to the marina for breakfast and now I am taking a break to download pictures and update the blog.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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