¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!

We ended 2009 and started 2010 in a fun way. Last night we were at my favorite Aunt and Uncle’s home, it was just family and we had a fantastic evening.

This morning we started our day/year by going to Mass and it is was beautiful! There was a mariachi band instead of the regular piano/keyboard and it sounded lovely! The sermon was about faith and how we believe/keep our faith with/in our heart – not with/in our mind… in other words, if we start analizing things we lose faith! How true this is!

Therefore, my wish for YOU at the start of this brand new year is that you have lots of faith in your heart! That you believe YOU are capable of doing anything you set your mind to, don’t allow your mind to “talk” you out of doing anything you want to do.

I already have a little list of MUSTS for this year, as they start coming true I will tell you about them Have fun this weekend and THANK YOU for being such wonderful blog buddies, please don’t stop visiting this blog and thank you for your comments, they make my day!

Happy New Year! Feliz 2010! ~

The Holiday Season

has been SOOOOOOO enjoyable! And it ain’t over yet! I have been terribly busy with work; however, I have enjoyed whatever time I’ve had available and it feels like a great achivement!

My wonderful friend Jackie and her family moved to Guadalajara last summer and I had not seen her since before we went to SD, she came to town for the holidays and we got to spend some time together and it was just like the good old times! Our friend Maritza (http://asthepalapaturns.blogspot.com/) had us over at her place yesterday afternoon and we all had a terrific time. Thank you Maritza , we had a great time and the cookies were super YUMMY!!!

Erica and Maritza

Jackie and I

No, this is not Mogli – is sweet JJ helping hang one of the two piñatas Maritza had for the children.

Piñata breaker extraordinaire in action with Leah and JJ in the background

The little ones on the ever so popular bouncy-whatever is called-thingy

and my cheeks-full-of-pizza Princess – always ready to pose for Mami and her ever present camera!

Enjoy the last few hours of this year. I hope 2009 is fantastic down to the very last second and may your New Year’s Eve be memorable and preceeds a fantastic 2010! ~

Late-night crafting

All day long I was waiting for night-time so I could go to sleep and when the time came for me to finally go to bed I decided to stay up and craft – yeah! It has been a long time since I purposely sat to create something, and it feels great to do so!

This holiday season went by mighty fast, I did not craft any of the gifts I gave – I ended up buying most of them and the rest I already had… shame on me! I cannot believe Christmas is over, I am not ready to let go of the Christmas carols, the cider, etc. and neither is Renata as she keeps on asking me to play Christmas music!

Due to the fact that I am indeed very tired, I worked at a very slow pace and therefore did not accomplish much. I made some gift certificate holders/cards, so plain I am embarrased to show them – but I liked them I hope the recipients do too!

I made an ATC to participate in an online challenge – please visit my other blog to see a photo of it, I am NOT thrilled with it but I guess I became rusty as it has been a long while since I created cards…

What I am REALLY happy with is an paper birdie I made following a tutorial I found tonight at a new blog I visited. I did the bird mostly free hand, glued three layers of birds and also cut out the wings free hand. I made two wings for each side and added generous amounts of fine glitter after using distressing ink on the birdie.

Here is a photo of her – her name is Wordie – just finished!

Here she is, in-flight! (Hee, hee – being silly is part of being tired I guess)

And she is now safely in her cage… with the door open, just the way she likes it!

Thank you for stopping by and enduring my silliness ~

The Holy Family

Today the Catholic church celebrates the Holy Family and listening to the sermon tonight  I conciously gave thanks for the family I was born into and for the family I’ve made for myself. I am very lucky, I have great friends! Some I’ve had for many years, others have been in my life for just  a few and others are fairly newcomers and I am grateful for all!

Even this blog has brought fantastic human beings into my life and since becoming a member of  swap-bot I’ve come across some very generous ladies who have been extremely kind to both Renata and I.

Thank you for your friendship! To me you are angels the Lord has sent into our lives and regardless of the length of your stay in our journey your company IS being throughly and conciously enjoyed YOU are part of the family I have created for myself… and by default for Renata as well!

I now  leave you with this photo of my Princess and I, it was taken earlier this month during the yearly city-wide festivities of the Virgin of Guadalupe – I must do a post on the subject!

May the last week of the year be exactly the way you want it to be! ~

Feliz Navidad – Merry Christmas!!!

I hope this day was everything you dreamed it would be/could be! Ours was fantastic!!! Renata tried to get up early and I convinced her it was still night time so I was able to sleep a little longer – shame on me!

When Renata got up she found what she had been asking for under the tree and started playing right away. I cooked breakfast and my Mom and sister came over and ate with us. At 11am we went to Mass and after mass we changed into comfortable clothes and got ready to go to our Annual Extended Family Christmas Feast! Yeah!

Every year, my father’s (RIP) siblings and their children and grandchildren get together at an uncle’s house and each family brings a dish and we set up a great buffet. There are salads, main courses, side dishes, drinks, desserts, bread, et. I brought a chicken dish and a piñata, my sister made dessert, etc. We all had a fantastic time, lots of great company, nice conversation, togetherness, you name it! And my Princess? Let the following photos tell their story:

Playing with cousins…

Hitting the piñata!

Enjoying a late afternoon swim!  

I feel VERY blessed, I wish you feel the same way. From our family to yours: Feliz Navidad! ~

Nochebuena – Christmas Eve

I pray you and your family had a peaceful and harmonious Nochebuena/Christmas Eve; tonight, around our table there were only four of us: My Mom, My sister Elena, Renata and I – Diego was sleep! We shared a wonderful meal, prayers, laughter, nice music, companionship and love for each other – it was great!

Happy Holidays from my Princess and I! ~

Thanksgiving part II

Hello there!!! My computer got really sick and I was unable to post… it is really weird how one can miss a computer – is not even a person!!! However, it allows me to be in touch with people so I guess that is a good “excuse” to miss it when it is not working

I know it’s been awhile since Thanksgiving but I still have photos to post and thanks to give to our friends: the Black family for having us over for yummy fun and nice company on Thanksgiving day! Here I am with my friend Erica, who by the way is a great cook!!

Here is Renata with Grandma Black

Erica and Marcel – a friend of the Black family from Canada

And the yummy food!

There will be a part III – sorry and after that I promise some holiday posts and pics of little things I’ve been tring to make. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and wish you a fantastic week!

Thank you for stopping by ~

Happy Thanksgiving! ~

To all my friends from the U.S. I hope you had a great day! We did – There are so many things we have to be grateful for – we are very lucky.

At school the English teachers have to organize a luncheon for the children and so we did. Each child brought some food (Turkey, mash potatoes, salad, pie, etc.) and all went into a buffet table. A tent was decorated and set up for the children, teachers and all other staff members that work in the Preschool/kindergarten section of the school. Since Renata’s school didn’t do anything to celebrate this very special and meaningful day – she does not go to a bilingual school, they just teach 1 hr. a day of English, I guess that is why – I took her to school with me so she could see/be exposed to a (somewhat ) Thanksgiving celebration.

I have some photos to share with you – FINALLY! This is the tent area being set up – I was in the classroom teaching

This is my creation, what do you think?!

And here are the children ready to be served!

We had some yummy poultry meat, mash potatoes, green salad, corn, fresh bread, assorted juices and pies galore!!! My all time favorite is PUMPKIN, and we had two of them, so there was plenty for everybody.

This creation was done by the other English Teacher – I love it! I want to take it home next week when we change the decor to Christmas!!!

I have more photos to share of Renata enjoying her visit to the school, but they will have to wait for the next post as I do not want to make this one that long… I am going to leave you with this photo of the Teachers:  Aida and I!

Thank you for stopping by. I wish you a fantastic weekend and if you are a Black Friday fan, may you find tons of great sales! Tomorrow is Friday, tomorrow is Friday, Friday – Friday – Friday! LOL!!! ~

Anniversary of The Mexican Revolution

Today is a holiday in Mexico and there was a parade – please don’t ask me for pictures, you know where my camera was!… no comments…   and I took Renata to watch it. Of course it was hot even though it was over by noon but I know where there is a shady area usually overlooked by spectators so we headed directly there and as expected it was not crowded, there was space to sit on some brick planters and had a good view of the parade.

After a shower, lunch and nap – in that order! LOL! – I went to my sewing class and cut out some matching pj bottoms  for My Princess and I, I will take photos of the finished bottoms and will share them with you sometime this weekend. I am getting excited at the possibility of making some clothes for me, I am still a long way from saying I am ready, but class by class I feel more sure of myself and hopefully soon I will know enough to make patterns, cut and sew something totally on my own – without the teacher’s assistance.

I am planning on finishing the translation tonight so this weekend I can start working on Christmas stuff for the classroom/students and I also want to make an advent calendar for Renata, if I don’t start soon Dec. 1st will be here and there will be no calendar again – just like last year.

Another thing I wanted to do have this holiday season is an advent wreath, have any of you had one before? The lighting of a candle once a week, etc. I read about it last year and it sounded to me like a nice tradition to start with Renata… I hope I can get everything ready so we can do it this year.

Well, I am off to work, I look forward to posting this weekend and sharing some misc. photos with you. TGIF!!! ~

Long week!

Did you have a good week? Mine seems to be taking FOREVER to be over! The fact that I fell yesterday and hurt BOTH shins does not help either yes, somehow I slipped while trying to unlock my car – I guess I stepped on fine gravel or sand – and my car stopped my fall but I hit the car with both shins and I thought I was going to pass out!

To make a long story short, my legs are swollen, my right leg bled like you won’t believe – I was wearing jeans, imagine if I had had a skirt on! – I walked like an old person or as if my legs were numb and they hurt when I walk. Thank God they were not fractured,I am very grateful for that

I’ve been struggling with a translation for DAYS! Aside from the fact that is boring, I was not provided with a word document but a hard copy so that makes it even more tedious On the bright side,the money I get paid should cover most of the car repairs I still have pending

Since I should get back to the infamous translation I am going to say goodbyed and will leave you with a photo of my Princess, who is doing MUCH,MUCH better. THANK YOU for all your concern,good wishes and nice comments. Since she was cooped up for days while she was ill,when she was finally able to go back to school she was also invited to a birthday party and she begged me to take her,so I did and she had a fantastic time. Here is a photo of her at the party – there was a pony carrousel – having the time of her life riding a pony for the first time ever!

Have a happy Friday! ~