Christmas and the New Year Beginnings

The biggest holiday event, among many big events, is the Parade of Lights put on by the Yacht Club in town. We usually have anywhere from about 10-25 boats who come up with a theme and adorn their boats with lights.  Prizes are awarded at various waterside restaurants in town.

We just love the Hattie Annie, the boat on the right, which always leads the parade and our hearts.

There was a wonderful sing-a-long Christmas carol event at Shots, a
restaurant down on the marina.  Susan King just arrived in time to join
Sam Rainwater, Chuck Gauvin and Terri Lynn Challis.

We walked down with our neighbors, Ron and Kathi, pictured here in
true Christmas spirit!  We were joined by Cheryl and Bill, Mary and
Roberta and none of us were too shy about belting out a few carols.

Candye

Pab, our neighbor, fisherman extraordinaire and Candye's
boyfriend

Boo and I with some boats on the walk home

Our neighbors, Tracy and Charlie Hill, had a fabulous party on their terrace.
We have some planning to do for next year as their house was all decked
out to please the boats who came right in front of our house, too.

Tracy is quite a character, in more ways than one:  she was a star in the TV
series, Bonanza.  She plays the piano beautifully, too!

More carol singing with Tracy.  Check out the sunken
marble bar in the center of the room!

Tracy and friend 

I have the worst time trying to make my traditional Christmas cookies.  For one thing, I can never find all the ingredients for what I want to make.  I have become a real fan of the Substitutes webpage on the Internet.  For instance, you can use flour instead of cornstarch, basil instead of parsley, etc. I settled on making date nut bread because we had a teeny bread pan that worked in my teeny stove.

We exchanged gifts with Bill and Cheryl
at our house.

We had a quiet Christmas morning and then had friends over for Christmas dinner.  Stupidly, I don't have a picture of them all (too busy) but it was Judy and Larry, Katie, Ariel, Rachelle and Cindy.  We had beef tenderloin with béarnaise sauce, sweet potatoes, salad, antipasti, chocolate mouse and some nice wines.  I bring in the outside table and chairs to seat this many.

Jim grilling and testing the roast!

Rachelle, who is back from Ecuador and Cindy

Boo and I walked the Esterito the following day

And Jim fished and I read afterwards.
Boo took a rest from chasing the waves to watch Jim fish.

We love going to hear the Blues Band at Froggy's on Tuesday nights.  It is an indescribable experience which I will attempt to describe.  It's a little seedy bar with bad food except for an acceptable pizza on Tuesdays which is 2x1!  The band is fabulous for dancing and the atmosphere lends itself to one heck of a good time, if you are with friends.  I once walked in by myself and was a little scared.  This night our friends, Judy and Larry were performing.  Larry played the guitar and Judy sang, "Summertime".  They were just terrific and a good time was had by all.

Things are very quiet during Christmas week.  Jim and I took a little tour of the Marinaterra Hotel and determined that it would be a fine place for guests to stay who didn't want to stay in our small place.

We had a couple of days of big winds that destroyed the bougainvillas and required lots of clean up in the yard from downed limbs and cactus fronds. The sea was wild.  We love really interesting weather!

One sad note is all the construction noise going on at the new beach club down below us!  The roar of the winds kept the
crews home this day.  But they are building a big event center.

One day, Boo was really sick.  He threw up about 4 or 5 times, peed on our bed and was so listless that he wouldn't eat or drink.  He would lick water from my fingers only.  After one more day of this, we decided to drive to Empalme and find the really good vet who was doing a free neutering clinic that day.  He took a good look at him and said that he was probably stung on the tongue by some kind of bug, likely a scorpion!  He would be OK.  The clinic was an amazing experience.  It took place way out on the outskirts of Empalme, a city past Guaymas, where we go to the tianguis on Sundays.  There were all kinds of people in line, with their dogs and cats.  Vets from all over were performing surgery right inside the opening behind Jim, where you could see what they were doing (not my favorite thing!)

After the vets perform the surgery, the animals are carried outside to recover
from the drugs.  Here, Jim is watching a passed out black medium size dog
and was told to let them know when he woke up.  Of course, he woke up
and was not a happy boy-almost bit Jim's arm!

Empalme tianguis with Cheryl and Bill.  Birrea tacos-yum!

We stopped at the Dolphinaria for tres leche cake we bought
at market to celebrate Cheryl's birthday.  They have to fly
back to Alberta for a day, come back, after checking into
Canada to keep their medical insurance active.

I do love our Plein Air art group on Tuesday mornings.  We are never at a loss for amazingly beautiful scenery to paint.  This day we went into the desert on the way to Nacapule Canyon.

Judy Morgan is probably the most professional of all.  This is her favorite
place to paint and has sold many of her paintings from this spot, one of
them to us!

The gang

Judy and her extraordinary rendition of this scene.

We never get enough of the Soggy Peso.  This day, there was a fundraiser for the trombone player, who needs dental surgery in order to continue playing his instrument.  We love this jazz trio and were more than happy to help!

Jimbo

Frankie selling raffle tickets

The trio

During the wind storms, we sit on this side of the house to enjoy the sunsets and keep out of the wind.

We have a new venue in town this year, Bartina.  And, on Sundays, Assterisko plays rock and roll.
It is upstairs in an old abandoned shopping center with wonderful views.  Hope to stay for dinner one of these days.

Alfredo and Beto

These kids were in the parking lot below and were dancing.  They got
a kick out of me, dancing from above with them.  I got a kick out of it, too!

On our last Tuesday adventure, the art group went to another area out in the desert where Jim and I have hiked before but never found this gorgeous stream.  Diane has lived here for 25 years and has a hacienda/horse ranch nearby.  She knows these hills and valleys well and took me on a little walk down the creek where there is a Giant Cardon forest and open meadows that are just beautiful.

Diane and Rosi

Rosi

Rosi's completed painting

Yvonne sketching Rosi

Check out this guy who came wandering by!  Caballero!

Beth found a sweet spot with her dog.

Beth's painting-a real different style

And, when Rosi finished her painting above, she
quickly painted this raven over an old painting that
was scraped of its old paint.  It made such a beautiful
backdrop for the raven!

Geez!  Judy is amazing.

The full moon rising.  We were going to go out kayaking to be in the glow but I was worried that it was too soon after
my bout with a viral infection.  Better safe than sorry!

I had to throw this one in!  It's a picture of Chandler's
(my Godson) and his wife, Lauren's baby in utero.
Isn't that picture just amazing!  My friend, Julie, is going
to be a grandmother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Wednesdays, there is a huge market in Guaymas and my friends, Judy and Diane, were going.  I wanted to tag along to see the places they shopped!  I learned a lot.  They are amazing shoppers, finding things I would never find!  I did get a pair of Brooks sneakers (slightly used) for $2.50 and they fit like a glove.

There are way too many blocks set up like this with fruits and vegetables, taquerias, candy and nut carts and clothes.  You
could never hit them all in one day!

Can you believe the pig's head?  This is their favorite
butcher.  I got chicken breasts and a leg of lamb here.
It's a little hard to see but they vouch for the quality of
the meats.  It was so much cheaper than our carneceria!

This is a skin diver with a long spear, fishing below us.

We spend a lot of time on the terrace just mesmerized by
whatever is going on below.  

I love this picture of Kathi on our wall!

Lynn and Dave Anderson drove to Nebraska and back to pick up this darling puppy named Dubonnet.  We had them buy us a bottle of Dubonnet and we made them one of our favorite Dubonnet cocktails to celebrate the arrival.

I'd like to think that this was Boo and Doobie kissing.  But, actually,
Boo was totally annoyed by his puppyness and continually took little
bites out of him!

Doobie loves their pool!

We often have sailboats spending the night in our little bay.  It makes for a beautiful picture.

Reunion of friends

After Judy's exhibition at the Galleria

Fernando and Laura (pronounced, La-oo-rah)

Our Lady of Guadalupe

We have been fortunate enough to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe day in Mexico several times.  This year's celebration took the cake.  We were asked to attend a celebration in La Manga, the little fishing village (ejido) west of San Carlos.  Thirteen years ago a cement statue of Guadalupe was found in the waters off Piedras Pintas Beach.  People from the village, hauled it out of the water and brought it to the church in the village, where it is today.  It is said to be a miracle, as surely it must be, as it had to be extremely heavy!

The story goes that  Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, was walking in an area of Mexico City, where he came across the image of the Virgin Mary, who asked to be called Guadalupe and who asked Juan Diego to speak to the Archbishop about erecting a church in her name on that site.  The Archbishop didn't believe Juan Diego.  He went back and saw the Virgin several more times.  He continued to tell the Archbishop who told him to ask her for a miraculous sign.  When last he returned to her, flowers appeared on the barren hill. He gathered them in his cloak and brought them to the Archbishop.  When he opened his cloak and displayed the flowers, the image of Guadalupe appeared on the fabric. Later, a Basilica was erected in Mexico City on the site where she appeared.

When we arrived at La Manga, the young girls of the village were singing canciones to Guadalupe and marching through the dirt streets to the church, where they brought a garland of flowers to lay upon the statue.  There were more songs and a short sermon by Father Jorge.

This is Monica and her older
daughter.  We first met her in
2013!

We then followed everyone down to the beach where they hopped into three pangas (Mexican small fishing boats).  We were asked to join them!

Today's haul by one of the villagers

Most of the girls were in the first boat and two carried the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe

This is Elena, mother of Monica, the
kindergarten teacher.  We helped in the effort
to build on to her house so Monica and her baby
could stay here in La Manga with her.  The baby
had Sickle Cell and needed a special place to be.

Our pilot and his baby

Look at the cute outfit on that cutie pie

Villagers in the quiet boat

This is Brenda, mother of one of the children.  She was
absolutely hilarious and kept us laughing the whole time.
She wanted our boat to race the others.

Leaving La Manga behind.  I wanted to write a song entitled, "A Panga from La Manga".  There is no electricity or running water here.  The houses are very, very basic but the people seem very happy.  They have a great location, that's for sure!

Passing a shrimp boat in the harbor

Mom and baby in our boat

My friend, Cheryl
I was freezing so she let me have that hat to put on my
chest to keep warm.

When we got to Pidras Pintas Playa, we tied all three boats together.  Father Jorge read something from his IPhone and
we all sung songs to the Virgin (even those of us who didn't know the words.)

I never knew who the man in the back was, but he talked for some time.
I wondered if he was one of the men who had found the statue in these waters.

The girls were given garlands of flowers to throw into the water
for the Virgin Mary.

We thought we were going to get out at Piedras Pintas but it turned out that we headed back to La Manga.  Poor Bill!  We had asked him to pick us up at the beach.  He was there but we were not.

Who says there are no crabs in San Carlos!?!

And, how about one of many Sting Rays for dinner.  They
were filleting them on the spot!  Yikes-not for me!