Pastorela in english

Thank you Arredonalds for having us for Christmas Eve dinner, we had great time, the blast of the celebration, " la pastorela". The devil does all he can to keep the shepherds from succeeding, but in the end good triumphs over evil -- with a little help from Angel Gabriel .

The characters:
Eduardo is Lucifer.

Aitana and Aida are shepherds, Bidane is Mary, with her baby.

Pablo is a sheep.
The shepherds acting their roles.

The Angel Gabriel and the narrator.

Piñata 101

In the mexican tradition, yes, we have a lot of traditions; the piñata for a Christmas party, called "posada", is a main character, because it represents the sins we need to beat out, in fact "las piñatas" were created for "las posadas" not for kid's birthdays parties. I think because they turned to be a fun entertainment, now you see them in other kind of celebrations.

How to make a piñata for the "posada", not big deal. First cover a balloon with paper and a mixture of flour and water, so it gets hard.

Para hacer una piñata estrella, que usaremos en la posada, solo necesitamos un globo que cubrimos con engrudo y periodico, unos conos de cartoncillo, papel de china para decorar, y ya.

Now make the cones for the star and decorate them.

Bidane, Aitana and Aida help with the decoration.

Estas niñas bonitas ayudan en la decoración de la piñata.

Now it is complete, it needs to be filled with candies and fruit.

Eduardo thinks he can make the best pictures for Christmas cards.

FELIZ NAVIDAD EVERYBODY!

El "pollo" dice, que puede tener las mejores ideas para organizar las fotografias de tarjetas navideñas y asi mandar felicitar a todos los que se dejen.

Chocolate calientito!

The last couple of nights in San Diego, have been a perfect excuse to make some hot chocolate, foamy hot chocolate the girls and I have enjoyed with pan dulce (mexican rolls). In old times, many Mexican families had these kind of treats after the evening meal. In some parts of the country the hot chocolate is made with water, others use milk.

Post-cards from Spain

Pepe me mandó esta postal de Madrid, La puerta de Alcalá en Navidad y como dice la canción de Ana Belen y Victor Manuel: mírala, mírala, mírala, mírala, La Puerta de Alcalá. Follow the link if you want to sing along.

2007 celebrations!

2007 Frida Kahlo's 100th birthday, she was born in July 1907, she liked to say that her birthday occurred in 1910, year of the Mexican Revolution, but it was just her saying, actually in her painting, "self-portrait with Hair Loose, 1947" ( above), she writes "this is me on a mirror image, 37 years old, July 1947". Why would she like to paint her-self at age 37?, so I came into the conclusion that what she is doing is celebrating her 40th birthday!.
By the way, I will celebrating my own 40th birthday this coming 2007, so I hope to cope well with the event, I'll try to finally to launch my projects.

It's clean mamá

Aitana wants to demostrate that their room is clean, making "snow angels" on the carpet. -Mira mamá está limpio-.

- Not so sure- I said, look over there, and under the bed.

Estara su cuarto tan limpio como Aitana dice? para demostrarlo hacia supuestos angelitos de nieve en la alfombra. -Aunque yo no estaria tan segura de la pulcritud del lugar, ya te fijaste alla atrás y debajo de la cama?-

Letter to Santa

Bidane writes the letter to Santa, she just asked for some presents, although she has some toys in mind.

La carta a Santa Claus, esta vez solo pide por unos regalitos, aunque de preferencia aquellos que tiene en mente.

FAQ about Santa Claus

Latelly I have been asked for many issues about Santa Claus. The girls have a lot of concerns about his procedures and "standars of operation". We don't have chimeney so they are really preocupied about how he is getting into the house, I've told them that he has a magic key, that he uses when people do not have chimeneys, a pretty common thing around the world, if you think that just south to the border and beyond people do not have chimeneys.

Another question is: if he uses this magical powder to sleep people, I had to say no. -See girls, imagine all the powder he will need for all the houses he visits, that sac would be as big as the presentes he brings-.

This year we are not traveling to Mexico as we do every year, and we spend Christmas either in my parent's house or Pepe's dad, and they never were as concern as this year, I think the excitment of the trip it self, distracts them from such thoughts. Another thing for us is that in my family, as in many homes in Mexico, the tradition is that the presents are brought by the little Jesus him-self or by the Three wise kings in January the 6th. I explained them that little Jesus sends Santa with the presentes to them. All part of our globalization.

What you can buy in Tepic.

Tepic is my hometown in Mexico, a small city close to the Pacific Ocean, about an hour to get to the closest beach. Some times I wonder, what kind of housing we could buy over there? So, I made a little research, here is what I found. Have to say the houses are located in nice neighbourhoods in town.

If you want to fix it up, this house for less than 150,000 dlls. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 26 by 65 feet on land. More photos and info



Now this house for a little more of 150,000 dlls. 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 32 by 65 feet on land. More photos and info.



This other house for around 300,000 dlls 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3 spaces for cars, land size more or less 23 by 99 feet. See here.




If you have 600,000 dlls, than you can have this back yard, not bad huh? 5 bedrooms, 7 baths. And big land too, around 131 by 1312 feet on land. If you are curious for more click here.



If you feel like having land on the tropical beach, despiting the mosquitoes during hot season, than you have to see this. 28,000 dlls and some little more effort to build, you have a house on the beach (I don't know if it is front beach land, but probably the ocean is pretty close).
size 29 by 164 feet.

No hair-cuts in Canada?

Last night the girls and I were watching an Aitana's baby video, from Canada. And both of them were really surprised about how long Pepe's hair was (they haven't seen anything). Their amazed was so big, that Aitana asked: En Canada no hay peluqueros, mamá?, Don't they have hair-cuts in Canada?

Las niñas se sorprendieron cuando vieron a su papá con el cabello largo, que Aitana preguntó si no habia peluqueros en Canada.

Apocalypto

You know.... Big controversy in Mexico. Mel Gibson went there last year to shoot Apocalypto, he called a Costa Rican actor working in Mexico, to be one of the important characters. He made him act, and now that the movie is out, that guy realized he was replaced for an Apache or similiar Native American (with respect to the Natives American) to play his role.
Everybody knows producers and so, can make what ever they want with their movies, but why Mel Gibson wanted to change actors, a guy that learnt mayan for this other guy?
That is true the first actor is not a famous man in Mexico, but he was expecting to make it big after this movie.
Oh well, I hope nothing like that happen to us ever, working hard, expecting something good after, and then, NADA.

North Park toy land parade.

El desfile navideño de North Park, aunque aquí a nadie le guste mencionar que es navideño, todo parece indicar que asi es, si no juzguen por ustedes mismos.

Vernetta's dance studio, la clase de baile de las niñas, was a participant of the Toy land parade.
Aitana is the tallest girl in the middle, la espigada de en medio es Aitana.

A Bidane le tocó ir sentada en el "carro alegórico", aunque no iba muy contenta.

Bidane is there too!

Getting ready!


It was a warm, very warm morning, so I bet the guy with the lion costume, wanted to trade it with the belly dance guy costume.

Hacia calor...! una mañana cálida, cualquier leon quiere intercambiar el disfraz con el de la danza árabe.
San Diego's Mayor, he is more heavy that I thought.

Personalidades del desfile, el mayor de San Diego, quien tiene una barriga mas grande de lo que creí.

Ice cream after a good job made on the parade. This place is must to visit in National City, delicious!

Nieve para refrescarse un poco despues del desfile.

Kumeyaay studies

Aitana's class have studied the Kumeyaay community and they made dioramas to explain the way of life of this group of people that belongs to this geographical region.

Aitana and Hayden explained how the Kumeyaay used to play and entertaint them selves.


Kendall and McLean. Erik and Casey.

En la clase de Aitana han estado estudiando al grupo étnico de los Kumeyaay, para lograr explicar como han vivido, construyeron dioramas en cajas de zapatos y pequeños muñequitos de barro.

Protesto...!

Asi es, lo que sea a lo que ambos se refieran, los dos protestan!

Allá en Foxilandia.

A usted no le interesa lo que comento de política? entonces..... clique aqui
Y Fox... en Foxilandia claro! La triste partida de Fox ha puesto la cereza al pastel del sexenio presidencial de Vicente Fox Quezada. Este hombre llegó a ser presidente con las más altas expectativas, muchas promesas y buenos augurios, para terminar en una crisis política, la mas grave vivida por el país en décadas.
Vicente Fox presume hasta el final de su sexenio de la estabilidad económica en la que deja al país, sin embargo, los empleos no se han creado, no se impulsaron los sectores productivos y la inseguridad es un tema de gran inestabilidad.
Desde un principio se observó la falta de madurez política de Vicente Fox y de su gabinete, entre ellos el guerito Santiago Creel. Ninguno de ellos se caracterizó por ser negociador y gracias a esto nada importante pasó, ninguna ley o reforma necesaria para el país logró concretarse.
Y el error político de mayor embergadura fue aquel que cometieran con lo del desafuero de Andres Manuel, aquí de un lado Fox de el otro López Obrador. Uno presidente, el otro gobernador del Distrito Federal, se colocaron en los extremos de la balanza, y dio inicio la radicalización del país.
Por ahora un extremo de la cuerda ya no juega, Fox se ha ido a su casa, al rancho. Andres Manuel (el presi-peje), sigue ahi, con un movimiento que solo dependerá de el si crece o se apaga, y por las señales vistas el primero de Diciembre, Andrés Manuel ha decidido reacomodarse y tal vez jugar mas en el terreno legal.