Lagos de Moreno

We spent the day in Lagos de Moreno, a picturesque town in Jalisco near the hacienda. The kids ran around on the cobblestone streets, marveling at the balloon vendors and eating ice cream with their cousins. We visited the colonial theatre with it's bigger than life ceiling mural and plush velvet seats:


Playing in the theatre:

We walked around the main plaza, shaded by palm and cypress trees:

The plaza:

All over Mexico (and Latin America for that matter), no matter how small the town, there is a main plaza flanked by a cathedral and government buildings, and many times outdoor cafes and restaurants. Here's the ubiquitous stone cathedral, where we counted no less than 8 wedding parties during the day either getting married or taking pictures:

I remember when they were little my brother and sister exclaimed "Mexico is so rich!" after seeing the church's altar covered in gold. Churches feel like palaces here, with

gold, silver, antique paintings and carved stone. After walking around we stopped by Juan Enrique and Nathalia's grandma's house, which could have been mistaken for another museum (except for the corn flakes on the breakfast table). I love the plant-filled patio in the middle, in this case with a glass dome to let in sun and keep out the rain.

Then the bedrooms surround this patio and can go to sleep with the sound

of the fountain (and the songbirds that snuck in!).

We went to an antique store that I would have emptied out if I had the money:). Wow. So this is where the haciendas buy their furniture and acessories!!!!

La Hacienda

We made it to Mexico! This time was a little faster because we already had our Mexican car insurance and my visa, so the border delays went from 4hours (last time) to 1 hour. The kids were really good in the car, especially now with their new Leapsters that Santa brought (best invention). Vivi plays her princess games and Tonito has a Leapfrog "getting ready for kindergarten" game. We underestimated Maya's interest and might have to remedy that with some kind of cheap knock-off handheld game:).
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So this time instead of driving to Mexico City, we first drove to a place called Lagos de Moreno, in the state of Jalisco. Actually, we drove to an hacienda 20 minutes away from Lagos on a bumpy dirt road with lots of "traffic" (see left).

The Hacienda is owned by Tonio's cousins, who have had it in their family for a while (from the other side of the family), and it is amaaaazing. It was originally built in the 1500's, with parts of it being added on throughout the years. The antique furniture alone could fill a museum and the carved wood was jaw-dropping. The lush gardens were filled with citrus, succulents, tropical flowers, palm trees, cacti, bougainvillea, etc. The ceramic, the tiles, the Talavera, the copper, aaaah. I could go on and on, but instead here is a slideshow of my frantic picture-taking, while half-watching that the kids didn't topple potted plants or jump into the fountains. Here are the pictures! This is a looong slideshow because I couldn't decide which pictures to cut- so use the fast-forward button to skip through them.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

La Posada (in Houston!)

We met a wonderful family, originally from Mexico City, who held a beautiful posada in their house. I was so excited they invited us!!! Una posada is a party where everyone acts out and sings a song about Mary and Joseph going from house to house to ask for "posada" (lodging) and are told that there is no room. Then finally they are allowed to stay and there is a celebration, lots of food, of course a pinata, and in this case lots of singing Christmas carols. Two of Tonito's classmates were there and one of Vivi's was there was well! The kids had a lot of fun, and so do the adults- I never imaged going to such an awesome posada that wasn't in Mexico!?!!

Here they are with friends from preschool:

Acting out the Nativity:

Lots of people, lots of Spanish being spoken:)-

It was a chilly 50 degrees outside for the pinata but that didn't stop the kids from diving on the candy. Maya's strategy of skimming the outside of the mass in the middle worked- she got the most loot!

Our living Nativity...

At the kids' preschool, every child was told to dress as one character from the Nativity. So here is our little Mary and Joseph (with a cast), along with a beautiful angel and Jesus played by mei mei.

It was a really cute program. Everyone sat with their parents, and as the Nativity story was read aloud, they would call for "all Mary's and Joseph's"... "all angels and shepherds"... "all animals"... "all Wise Men"... etc. to come to the front stage.

Mary and baby Jesus were a little shy, and wanted to stay by mommy almost the whole time. Joseph was a little ham however, and his smile was ear to ear. The angel was a little confused and kept referring to herself as a fairy princess.

After the program we had breakfast in the kids' classrooms, and then sat on Santa's lap. We asked Santa if he would be able to come tonight to our house to deliver presents, and he said yes!! That Santa, he's a nice guy. I'm not sure how he is going to finish shopping.. er making the presents by tonight, much less wrap them all! I guess he will be up really late!

Sisters are the BEST medicine!

Sisters, combined with ice cream and DVD's all day!

Tonito's hand surgery

Tonito had surgery on his hand at Texas Children's on Wednesday. He was so brave!! I asked him if he knew what the doctor was going to do and he responded, excitedly: " He's gonna put me a new finger right here where's it's missing so I have 5!" "No mi amor, no sweetie, he can't do that. He is going to make your hand stronger so you can grab things, but he isn't going to give you a new finger there" (poor thing, this broke my heart). We told Tonito that after this surgery he will be able to do kung fu with both hands, and he decided he would be able to fight off any T-rexes that come his way. He also wants to start drum lessons, which I told him he would be able to do after the cast comes off. Here he is picking out his riding machine (to ride to the OR)- I love Children's Hospitals! They think of everything.

The surgery took 4.5 long hours, and left Tonito with thousands of stitches in his hand, several pins, and a huge cast that will stay on for 6 weeks.

It's incredible that this is an outpatient surgery- we didn't even stay one night in the hospital. He was so groggy from the anesthesia that he slept the whole way home, and then we carried him in and he slept until morning (after not having eaten or drunk anything all day, and yes, drunk is the correct past participle there).

Tonito has been through more than one kid should have to deal with in his short little life- and yet he is such a trooper, never complains, and doesn't get scared. He's so innocent and loving and trusting-- and strong. He kept falling asleep here, and then would wake up to tell us that he wanted a popsicle. Then he'd go back to sleep, and wake up again to remind us that we promised him chocolate chip ice cream. And then he would fall back asleep. So sweet, poor little guy!

The best play-dough recipe

We were in charge of making green play dough for Vivi's and Tonito's classrooms for December. The warm and squishy dough is so fun to squeeze even mommy couldn't stop from playing. Seriously. This is the best recipe ever:
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Play dough Recipe
Mix food coloring with 2 cups of water. Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 cup salt, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar. Add colored water to the dry ingredients and mix. Cook mixture over medium heat until spongy. Knead and let cool. Store in an airtight container. We added a couple of drops of peppermint oil to the dough so it would smell Christmas-y (though I don't recommend that if you have kids too little to understand it isn't food!!). The best part about this play dough is that it lasts for SO much longer than store bought play-dough!! We have some pink dough from at least 2 years ago that Vivi still plays with.

Gingerbread girls and boys (but no lemurs)

Today we made gingerbread cookies (whole wheat, egg-free, and they still tasted good!). A while back Vivi told me how she would like the gingerbread man story to end: "And when they got away, the gingerbread boy and gingerbread girl sailed in a gingerbread boat to Madagascar, and played with gingerbread lemurs." Today she asked me if we could make gingerbread lemurs, but I told her I didn't have a lemur cookie cutter yet. She seemed satisfied to only to gingerbread girls today.

Maya really liked the idea of sprinkles, and participated by making mountains of them on every cookie within reach. When "no one" was looking, she also liked to grab and eat handfuls of them.

Maya, what's that in your mouth?

Rudolph Cookies

Trying out our new aprons by making rudolph cookies! (the aprons work mom!) Look at Maya taking the mixer away from me hehehe. I'm not sure if you can tell, but she is pantless because we are just starting potty-training! (that is why her apron is not being tested today).
Step 1: Make your favorite sugar cookie recipe. We made Mrs. Field's cinnamon and sugar cookie dough. Step 2: Add pretzels and m&m's to make a rudolph face.

Step 3: While baking in the oven, find an activity to do so mommy can do the dishes.

Step 4: Enjoy!

The only problem is that the pretzel antlers did not stick on as well as I would have liked. Maybe a peanut butter cookie would be a better base? I think rolling the cookie dough in cinnamon and sugar didn't help.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Our tradition is to make "goodies" on the night that we decorate the tree. Goodies are kid-friendly appetizers on big platters that let everyone graze while putting up the ornaments. Of course the only problem is that I have no idea what Maya actually had for dinner, although I have a suspicion she ate a lot of cheese!

We can't decide if we want the heat on or off, since it gets down in the 40's and 50's at night, but then warms up to 60's and 70's in the day. Tonight we just lit the fireplace and stayed warm while we decorated. I love looking at our ornaments because they reflect all of our travels throughout the years- my Polish Santa, my Hong Kong dragons, the Dutch ceramic shoes, my Ecuadorian clay dolls, the bell from Finland, the cowbell from Switzerland, the snow scenes from Estonia, the shell and mango from the Caribbean, lots from Mexico and China and all over the US, the castle from England, the angel from Ireland, my Slovenian pig.. and then all of the ornaments the kids made... or the framed photos. All on a fake Christmas tree;). LOVE IT. Here's Maya loving the sweet potato fries.

Vivi in her sparkly, Christmas, feet-pajamas (that are so small her toes curl, but she loves them too much to care!)

Tonito: "Mommy, here's a pattern. Eat, ornaments, eat, ornaments, eat, ornaments. Isn't that a good one?"

After decorating the tree, we made the impossible green-corn-flake-and marshmellow cookies (kind-of like krispie treats?). I remember eating these as a kid, and they were sticky but perfectly formed as wreaths or Christmas trees. We definitely got the sticky part down, but they did NOT form any recognizeable Christmas shape. More like green blobs with red hots sprinkled on. What is the trick!? Also, when you actually make the cookies and watch the sugar and butter going into them, they are a little (just a tiny bit) less appealing to eat because you see the fat and calories that go into them. Although this only lasts about 5 minutes, and then as you bite into the sugar and fat concoction your brain instanly erases the memory of the cookie's creation.