Morelia, Mexico (the state capitol)
Santa speaks Spanish!!
Christmas dinner, Posole! So yummy!
We stayed in a tiny town in Morelia Mexico called Batuecas. This is Sam's Aunt Chule's house where we stayed for 3 weeks. His 98 year old grandma Mamaita and his cousin Nena live here. To the left is the store and the kitchen. Straight ahead over the wall is where the chickens are kept. To the right are three bedrooms, each has two beds. Behind the camera is the bathroom, shower and wash area for clothes and dishes.
a picture of the inside of the kitchen! Yummy homemade corn tortillas!!mmm...
This is a picture of the outside of the store that they run. They sell a lot of alcohol, candies and chips among other things.
Where we did our laundry and dishes using warm water they get from a fresh water spring
the shower
and of course the lovely bathroom
BATHTIME!
Uncle Alex doing Aaralyn's hair
A couple places we visited!
This is Puruandiro, it was about 30 minutes from where we were staying and we went there often to buy groceries, eat ice cream and the best tacos in the world!! It is a big joke down there to not eat the tacos because they will "cleanse you out". Needless to say you have to be careful which taco stand you choose or you might be in the outhouse all night ;)
We also visited a local Balnuario (a swimming place). The water is warm and comes from a natural spring. They also have a little nicer showers where you can go to freshen up. We went to a fair/circus, where Aaralyn got to ride more horses and some rides with her cousins and Uncle Angel. There were also a lot of weddings and quinceanera that we went to. Everybody dances and eats and has a lot of fun until the early hours of the morning!
We also visited a cute little town called Santa Clara where they mine copper and make the most beautiful things out of it. Pots, tubs, sinks, jewelry gorgeous handmade things! We got to see the process of how they make a pot, very cool and a lot of work!
first they take a small piece of copper from the fire and pound it to flatten, then put it back in the coals to heat it up. They continue this process until the sheet is large, round and flat.
Once it takes on a little shape, they dip it into a liquid which causes the copper to change color.
From there they pound it with a hammer to get the pretty dents that shine!
We spent a lot of time at the house, playing. Aaralyn LOVED the cats and dogs and chickens and especially her cousins! I made some tortillas with Chules, and we took walks to visit friends. Every morning Aaralyn would wake up and ask grandma Margarita to take her for a walk to see the horses, she would help sweep and sometimes gave the poor kittens a "bath" in the buckets of water. Aaralyn surprised me with how much she loved the horses. She wanted to ride them and WOULD NOT get OFF!I am glad she had so much fun!
Here are some pictures out front of a beautiful Poinsettia tree. we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year and had the time and opportunity to reflect on what Christmas is all about, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
