Can’t be sure what happened to the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but here we are, Christmas is closing in way too fast. The weather has been incredible. The days are no warmer than mid 80’s, and the nights have been all they way down to 69 or 70. This year we have received the gift of mild weather for the month of December. Snowbird friends have started to arrive, and we have been busy catching up with old friends, and making new ones. Had a few ex pat friends over for a belated Thanksgiving dinner; an invitation to a couple of friends turned into a party of more than a few people. This is typical. Some friends recently got caught in an 1-1/2 hour traffic jam up in Oaxaca. Being anxious gringoes, they just wanted out of there. Not the Mexicans. Car doors opened. Food and drink suddenly appeared, people mingled, vendors (how is it they always show up at the exact right time) showed up, turned the traffic jam into a party...so Mexican. We laughed, and said “you know you are in Mexico when.....”

It is fun to watch the process of friends acclimating to Mexican life. There is a struggle the first few days, and then total surrender to Mexico’s sweet, easy, delicious, culture. The Christmas season is in full swing here beginning with the Day of the Virgin of Guadeloupe. The parades, processions, music, and food mark the start of the season. It is Mexico’s holiest day, and biggest party of the year. We also hear talk of how many tamales one has made, as this is the biggest tamale making season. We are even planing a little tamale making when Caryn and Micah come. That will probably happen between sunbathing at the beach, snorkeling in the ocean, and pool time here.

It has been very quiet for the beginning of the season. Between the bad publicity of the border issues, and Mexicana going bankrupt, Huatulco and the rest of Mexico has taken a serious hit in tourism. We have heard, though, that all charters and flights for January and February, at least through Continental and Apple Express, have been sold out coming down to Mexico, so maybe it will pick up here. It is a shame that the border issues caused the rest of Mexico to suffer from bad publicity. It is so far from the truth of this country, it is a shame people do not come and see that in fact it is peaceful.

(The LA Times keeps a statistic on violent crimes to date, today reporting 17,790 violent crimes, in city of Los Angeles. Outside of the border statistics, you are hard pressed to match this number for the entire country of Mexico. And yet the perception is so opposite. Very sad. We even had people in Costa Rica asking us about the violence here. It’s not here. It is not near here. I’m still saying the US needs to examen it’s in own role in the violence at the border. And yet Mexico continues to reap the bad publicity, economic consequences, and the war on drugs in the US is fought on Mexican soil at the expense of many innocent people.)

Our fabulous white plastic Christmas tree is up. Larry has decked out the place in lights everywhere possible, and is eyeing the coconut tree now. As we caught bits and pieces of football games in the States this weekend we caught the Chicago Bears game, OMG, and said to ourselves aren’t we glad we are here. Bill and Michelle, friends from Indiana, pulled in Saturday, after driving down, and described their trip in terms of temperature, starting from a snow blizzard and below 0 degrees, to our Mid 80s here. They are not missing Indiana to say the least. Nor are our Canadian, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan friends either. We are eating our roast turkey by the pool....

And so it goes, later.