Christmas Break in MN

I was fortunate enough to get to return to home home for Christmas break. I left on Dec 16 and came back to home on Jan 2. It was the fastest 2 weeks of my life!! I saw many family and friends and I am so thankful to have every one of those people in my life. Being home was one of the best times I've ever had with the fam. Mom said that I seemed more relaxed and 'go with the flow'. I contribute that to two things:

1) It's sunny EVERY DAY ALL DAY here in Mexico! I really do think that sun does something for you!

2) The lifestyle here is go-with-the-flow ~ if you don't incorporate that into your life you will go crazy here in Mexico!!

Some highlights of being home in Minnesota:

1)    Meeting new babies and seeing growing babies - Jack, Jack & Aubrey

Jack Carter  Born Dec 20 6lbs 6oz

Jack  17 months

2)  Skating on the lake

I amazed myself... didn't fall once!

3)   Sliding with Emily

AND GUINNESS

4)  Running in the winter for the first time

5)  Wearing sweatshirts daily

6)  Being home with the whole family

7) Cultural Event – Little Match Girl with Mom, Patty, Em & Madeline

8)  Finally getting to give my Mexico Prizes to everyone

9)  Christmas Lights! Even in there was no snow

Christmas Flamingos

This was all ONE HOUSE... I was totally amazed!

My favorite part - the hanging stars

10) Lots of lunches, dinners, drinks with old friends

11)   HOMEMADE DINNERS FROM MOM

12)  Christmas Cookies – this years favorite: Russian Tea Cakes

13)  Diet Coke & Diet Mountain Dew

14) Jimmy’s Pizza

15) Hanging out at the Shop

16) Driving - mom's car

17) Shopping – Shoes & Clothes!! 

Super full closet!

I now have LOTS of clothes here

Mr. Boily was a present but one of my favs - he can hard boil and egg in the microwave in 3 mintues

18) Getting my hair did

19)  Being able to call anyone any time

20)           FAMILY

21) $300 Travel Voucher - I stayed an extra night in MN because I gave up my seat on the over sold plane, I was the lucky one!

¡¡Feliz Navidad!!

My apologies for not getting this out before I left. 

I have a couple blogs coming in a row so stay tuned. 

I wanted to show you all my city before I left for Christmas but things like last minute shopping and parties got in the way. In the middle of one of the bigger squares in the Centro was life size scenes of Christmas and then some. Without further ado here they are... 

In case you want to translate what this is all about to mean...

A giraffe in the Garden of Eden ... I think that may be Giraffe #1

More animals in the Garden of Eden

Adam and Eve and the apple... Now remember this is all life size!

Better view of the garden

This explains why Hell is represented

You have now entered hell

The devil

This guy is eating a leg... it's gross

Connie - check out those flamingos!

The Manger

Baby Jesus wasn't there yet

This is the pinata and I learned a cool story about why it  has 7 points coming out of it. Those points were made to represent the 7 deadly sins and then adults would beat and destroy the pinata - or the sins.

Everyone getting ready for Posadas - it's the party before Christmas usually around Dec 16th

Here is Joseph's shop

Mary is being told she will be the mother of the baby in her tummy

A giant Christmas tree in the next square over

Feliz Navidad

Everything was decorated so pretty down here! There were Christmas lights and trees everywhere you went!

Thirsty and Locked Out!

Warning: FUNNY STORY

 

There is never a dull moment here in Mexico! So this Friday I was really looking forward to coming home taking a nap, going for a run, and then we were going to go out for one of our friend’s birthdays. What really happened was I came home, took a 2 hour nap and when I got up I decided that I didn’t want to go running – this is the first time since I’ve been here that I have talked myself out of my running routine. So, instead I made dinner. While making dinner I decided it was beer-thirty so I went to open a delicious Mexican Christmas beer, but there was a problem … I have no church key! 

I successful opened it with the drawer handle last time, but this time it was NOT working! So after many attempts I tried using a lighter. Now I know people have done this before but I’ve never actually seen how. Turns out I had no idea what I was doing and I cut my finger.

You can barely see it but it's in one of those places where I keep hitting it

So after I tried to stab it open and failed I gave up on having beer with dinner. After dinner I decided that I should walk down to the mall and get a bottle opener so I could enjoy my beverage and besides I needed cash anyway.

Here's the top after many attempts to get it open

I have two locks on my door, the bottom one is a push in the button lock and the top one is a deadbolt you have to use the key in on both sides. My routine is to push the bottom lock and stick my keys in the top deadbolt on the other side.

Normally this is how my keys are, and when I lock it I stick the top part in the other side. For some reason I was not thinking and this is what I did and then shut the door on the other side.

For some reason I was not thinking and I stuck them in the backside of the door after I had pushed in the button. It was one of those situations where as your pulling the door closed you think NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I had locked myself out… all because I was thirsty!

¡¡¡¡¡¡NOOOOO!!!!

After a moment of panicking and thinking what the hell do I do now; I called Maya who always knows what to do. She said she would call Beto to find out and I figured I’d better start the school call tree because last time it took another girl down here a super long time to get a hold of anyone. So on my walk to the mall I call Jeff Lewis (yes, that’s his real name) and he said he would call my HR lady and they would get a locksmith out to me ASAP. At this point I really needed that beer!

I continue into the mall to get cash AND A BOTTLE OPENER and to my surprise when I got to the ATM it tells me that I have to contact my bank. So I try another ATM, same thing. I know I had money in there because after school my card got declined at the Oxxo when I was buying my delicious weekly Friday treat so when I got home I checked my account and I definitely had money in there! So great… now I have NO money and no way to buy a bottle opener!

So I call Maya again… this time to ask her to bring me money and something to drink! At this point all I could do was tell myself I can cry or just laugh at this no good, very bad, horrible situation! I chose to laugh! When I got back to my apartment, my neighbor Jordan was home, so I sat at his house and finally had a drink while I waited for Maya and Beto to come with money and support. I really have the best friends down here! Plus Maya gave me an allowance for the weekend so I at least had some cash on me. I had to make very wise buying decisions.

All because I didn't have these!!

So I finally went and bought a church key

And I finally had my beer! I was no longer thirsty!!

All in all it was a sucky thing, but it worked out the best it could because they locksmith was actually on time… something that doesn’t happen often down here!

Today I got my bankcard fixed, thanks to Maya translating for me. AND I made an extra set of keys for Maya just incase I have a stupid moment again.

On a completely random note, sometimes my cooking skills amaze me and this is something I made for dinner the other week. Looks good, no?  

Don't worry folk I'll be home in 11 days!! But knowing me at least a couple more interesting things are going to happen before I make the trip back!  ;)