Christmas Day and following days

December 17th was not only the day of the Santa Claus parade in town but the day our first grandson was born.  We came home from the parade to find a message from our son and his wife that their little boy had arrived at 3:30 pm.  They were already back home from the hospital within 3 hours of his birth!  We called them via Skype with our web cam and got a chance to visit with them and see our new grandson!  Thank goodness for Skype to keep in touch and see our family on a frequent basis!

The days after the Santa Claus parade leading up to Christmas day were filled with local festivities.  One evening the town put up a large screen in the town square for the children to watch a movie.  The children were served bags of popcorn and a glass of juice.  What a treat for them!  Several of the women in town were busy creating pinatas.  The pinatas first appeared in town strung across the street to decorate the main road for the Santa Parade.  During the following week, one evening a pinata was strung up on a side street and raised and lowered as the children each had three attempts to swat at the pinata to break it and retrieve the candies hidden inside.  It was so delightful to see and hear the excitement of the children as they participated in this event!

One evening we sat out to watch the meteor shower from 9:30 to 10 pm.  We are spoiled here as there are no street lights so we see so many more stars than we do at home in Ontario.

On Christmas day we enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner for 6 of us.  Turkey (from Costco), potatoes, yams, broccoli, and carrots.  Dessert was rice pudding.

Pat, Mavis, Mike, John and Bev toast a Merry Christmas

The day after Christmas Vic had a chance to fly his kites (a garage sale find) down at the waterfront.  Unfortunately, the winds were not strong enough to fly the tri-plane kite, but they were good enough for our lighter dragon kite.

Vic on the beach flying the kites

Tri-plane kite

Dragon kite

One day we walked along an overgrown trail.  We spotted a large pileated woodpecker which is unusual here as we normally see the small Gila Woodpeckers which have yellow heads.  We also spotted a monarch butterfly and a beautiful orchid-like flower along the side of the path.

Pileated woodpecker

Not a Monarch butterfly -- may be an  Isabella's Heliconian

The evenings are starting to cool off with overnight lows of 18C or 19C.

The ocean temperature has come down to 80F or 27C.

The beach is currently crowded during the day with Mexican families that have come down from Guadalajara for their Christmas vacation week.

typical beach scene

Christmas Activities

Our town of Lo de Marcos had a Santa Claus parade on December 17th.  The parade was also in celebration of the 7th anniversary of Casa de los Ninos.
 http://www.jaltembabaylife.com/community/la-casa-de-los-ninos

Marching Band?

There were floats from several of the RV parks.  Our buddy Mike decorated his car as a bumble bee as the contribution from our Savage RV Park.

Prancing horses

Tuby

Fairy Princess

Santa in RV

 

Santa finally arrives at the end

Traffic Police at the rear

December 7th

Friday started with a bang. Well...actually a big crash as the fridge door came crashing down onto the floor when Bev opened the door. We had just finished breakfast and were settling down for our morning coffees. Everything on the inside of the door came crashing to the floor. I was amazed that nothing broke and there wasn't a big mess to clean up.

The culprit was a broken hinge on the bottom of the fridge door. What a piece of crap! Whoever designed this and approved it should be fired. There was no way this plastic hinge could ever hold up to common use. On our previous fridge, this hinge piece was made of metal and could endure the weight of the door and contents.

Thanks to a copious amount of JB Weld epoxy, I was able to re-construct the hinge but was not satisfied that it would be a long-term solution. John came over with a piece off his satellite dish mount that he did not need. I cut a piece and formed it into a new hinge point that now supports the original hinge. This is a good fix that should last a long time.

Christmas is coming!

Despite missing the white snows of winter (just kidding), we do try to get into the spirit of Christmas by decorating the palapa shelter where we meet for happy hour. Then we do up our rigs.

VandB's rig with happy snowman.

Walter and Carol's rig with a "tree" as its focal point.

V and B's rig showing rope light on ground, snow flakes on windshield.

Seen from the street, the campground looks really great. Not shown is Mike and Mavis's rig with their dazzling light show, making three rigs plus the palapa on display. People passing by must be envious. Or maybe not. Regardless we are all having fun!

December already

Monday, December 3rd

It is hard to believe it has been over a month since we left home!

Now that most of the snowbirds have arrived, our social calendar is getting busy.  Zumba classes, hula classes, stretch classes for the gals on various mornings of the week.

Most of the restaurants opened the beginning of December.  Fund raising events are scheduled for December 5th and December 9th. December 12th is the first dinner/dance of the season with the band "Sons of the Beach".  December 13th will be an evening in Rincon de Guayabitos to celebrate the birthdays of 2 our of friends.  December 15th, the owner of our RV park is hosting a dinner for those of us staying in the park for the winter.

We've started to put up our Christmas decorations on our RVs and the palapa where we meet for Happy Hour.  We just do a little each day.

The firecrackers from the church go off at odd hours of the night for the celebration of the first 12 days of December for the Festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The noise is bad enough for humans but our neighbours' dogs are terrified by the sound! 

The waves have been great the past couple of days and given us a chance to go for our first boogie boarding for the season.  Lots of relaxing afternoons on the beach!

Not many people on the beach on a week day

Vic about to set out to boogie with the others

Thursday, December 6th

We went for a drive to Sayulita, then along the coast to Punta de Mita  with a stop afterwards for lunch at Anna Banana's in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.  These towns are busier with tourists than Lo de Marcos, especially Sayulita which is popular for surfing. 

 
The following photos were taken on the beach in Sayulita: