New Music for the New Year

I thought I'd start the new year off with some music from Andrés Cepeda who has been called the 'carpenter of love'...he is a Colombian composer/singer/musician from Bogotà. His music is relaxing and romantic. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy and like many other Colombian artists he is also active in social peace projects here in Colombia, especially with an anti-mine campaign carried out through the office of the Vice-President.

We Wish You A Merry CHRISTmas!!

Jorge's family celebrates Christmas starting at around 9pm on Christmas Eve. At 10pm we had a big Christmas dinner with two baked pork legs (one sweet and one spicey) and several side dishes. After dinner, at midnight everyone hugs everyone (and I mean EVERYone!)...you have to give the Christmas hug to everyone present. Then comes time to sit around the tree and exchange gifts. Since we are a big family and we couldn`t possibly afford to get gifts for everyone, we always draw names and do our gift exchange that way. After the gifts we have a time for dancing and talking until people start falling asleep. Jorge and I stayed until about 3:30am and then we headed to bed. Here are a few photos from the night:

Jorge with our nephew, Christian and neice, Carolina.

Jorge and his brothers and sisters with Mom and Dad. Missing from the photo are two of Jorge's brothers.

Jorge's youngest brother, Chava, and Rocio. They are getting married tomorrow and are expecting a baby girl at the end of February.

Jorge's sister, Leti, and her husband, Pepe.

Nephew, Ernesto with his mom, Isabel, his son Christian and his wife, Cristina.

Niece Ruth and her husband, Omar.

Jorge gettting seconds.

Niece, Lourdes, and her daughter, Carolina.

Mom and Dad with all the grandkids and great-grandkids.

Mamita and I.

Nieces... Ruth, Cristina and Gabi

Hangin' Out At Home In Mexico

Our first day in Mexico...Jorge is performing his new magic trick for our nephew, Christian.

Our new nephew, Uriel, is almost 3 months old.



Mamita sitting in her spot on the couch.




She gets from the bed to the living room with the help of her walker or by one of us. She looks really good in these photos but in reality she is very weak and frail and is in constant pain. She is so sweet and loving though, you would never know it by her disposition.

My father-in-law is always trying to get me to eat something. He thinks I'm too skinny, bless his heart! :)

Jorge and his sister, Leticia, stay up late talking every night!

Helping to make chiles rellenos.

My niece, Brenda, 'fixing' my hair.

Our niece, Norma, had a baby girl this year and named her Camila.

Camila is really sweet and laid back. I rarely ever see her cry.

Our twin nieces, Gabriela (standing) and Galia just turned 18 in October. Gabi is coloring Gali's hair out on the front porch.

Jorge has been working hard since he got here. He is always doing some kind of project on his sister's house or his dad's house. He has been painting, laying cement floors and laying tile!


Siesta time with the new love of my life...Greco! I'm trying to convince Jorge to let me take him home with me to Colombia.

How To Make CHILAQUILES

One of my favorite things to eat when I'm in Mexico are my sister-in-law's Chilaquiles. She makes them really yummy. I've had good ones and bad ones and when they are good, they are really good...but when they are bad they are bad! Usually we make them when we have a lot of extra corn tortillas left over. After a couple of days they get a little bit tough so they aren't very good for tacos anymore...but they are just right for Chilaquiles! Here's how my sister-in-law, Leticia, makes them:


STEP 1: Cut up the corn tortillas into mediums sized squares:




STEP 2: Put the tortilla squares in a frying pan with hot oil and stir until they get golden brown:

STEP 3: Break open 2 or 3 eggs (depending on how much you are making) and stir them into the chips and let the egg cook. Salt to taste and lower heat while you make the salsa (or even better yet, make the salsa ahead of time.):

STEP 4: Grill as many tomatoes and chiles as you need to make the salsa. Chilaquiles should be moist so don't be shy with the tomatoes. The amount of chiles depends on your own taste:

STEP 5: Put the grilled tomatoes and chiles in a blender with about 1/4 onion and 1 garlic and a little bit of water and blend well. You can also add a chicken boullion cube in the mix for extra flavor, if you like:

STEP 6: Pour the salsa over the tortilla chip and egg mixture. Make sure all the tortilla chips are covered in the salsa so they can soak it in. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes:

STEP 7: Shred cheese and sprinkle over Chilaquiles...Leti uses Oaxaca or Manchego but you could use Mozzarella too. Something mild that melts well. Cover and let simmer for another 5 minutes until cheese melts into the mixture:

STEP 8: Serve and enjoy. It`s even better with sour cream on top!

VARIATIONS: If you have a bigger crowd you can use a bigger pot and make a few layers alternating the chip & egg mixture with cheese (and you can add layers of shredded chicken too if you want) and then pour the salsa over the top, making sure it soaks in through all the layers and coats all the chips well. Then cook as explained above!

Spanish Christmas Music

I am breaking tradition today by posting some non-Colombian music. The songs on my current playlist are to give you a sample of traditional Christmas music played in Colombia...they play the same ones here in Mexico and I imagine all over Latin America, although I don't know that for a fact.

Enjoy!

Home for the Holidays

Jorge and I are ¨home¨ in Mexico and ready to spend the holidays with the family! We left our house on Friday, Nov. 28th at 4:15 am and arrived at my sister-in-law´s house in Queretaro about 21 hours later. It was a very long and tiring day but we got our second wind upon arrival when we were greeted by lots of family and good food!

The next day we made a 5 hour road trip to the west coast to the city of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan where we will spend the majority of our time this trip. Jorge´s mom is living here now so we usually go wherever she is! This time we are staying with Jorge`s youngest sister, Leticia and her family.

The rest of the family will be traveling into town around December 20th and joining us for Christmas and New Years and also for Chava´s (Jorge´s youngest brother) wedding on Dec. 26th. It is going to be a crazy time with lots of people and action!

Mamita is doing well. She is pretty much the same health-wise although she has more strength here in the hotter climate so she can get out of bed and walk to the couch by herself (with a little help) and she also gets up and washes her face and brushes her teeth all by herself in the mornings. That might not sound like much but it´s more than she could do before so we are really happy to see her a little more independant than last time. She is a tiny thing and only weighs about 77 pounds! But she has the biggest heart full of love!

It has been almost 2 years since we were here last and since then we have 7 new family members! One neice got married, a nephew got married and in a few days Jorge´s brother is getting married plus one neice had a baby girl, one nephew has a new baby boy and there are two more babies arriving within the next 3 months (too bad we won´t be here for their arrivals!)

Photos to come...

Very, very sad news!!

As you may remember from my earlier post, we have been excited about the new baby girl named Tamar arriving to our Bocachica neighbors, Marlaine and Antonio. On Sunday, Nov. 30, it turns out that Marlaine´s baby was delivered still-born. I don´t have all the details but it turns out that there was a doctor´s error in calculating the due-date and they didn´t send her soon enough to induce her labor (she never went into labor) and their baby girl died. A normal pregnancy lasts approximately 40 weeks and they calculate that Tamar was 44 weeks along! As you can imagine Marlaine and Antonio and the whole family are heartbroken and having a really hard time right now. PLEASE remember them in your prayers!!