It wasn’t so much of a Christmas this year for us.  I think it was for several reasons.  It feels more like fall here than winter for one thing.  There is no snow, in fact many days are bordering on being hot.  There are only some decorations around, and only some houses are lit up.  We got a bare branch, impaled some Santa marshmallows on the branches and hung some white lights on it.   I’m not sure if it’s celebration of Christmas or a statement that we’re not buying into Christmas.  It is nice however to be away from the commercialism involved with Christmas and a place that’s much warmer than Colorado right now. 

There’s really nothing to buy here and things can’t be mailed to or from here.  I searched all over town for gifts and the selection was grim.  The funny thing was that we got each other the same thing, a toilet seat.   Since arriving at our house, we have been without toilet seats.  In my opinion a hole in the ground would be better than a toilet sans seat.  We learned how to handle the hole in the ground in Thailand.  In fact, it wasn’t so bad. 

 

Living several weeks without a toilet seat, we each adapted our own way of working around this lack of excessive luxury we are accustomed to in the states.  I took to squatting on the seat, Thailand style, but it was difficult.  Standing on the toilet took some balance and I was afraid of ripping it from its mounting or the whole thing collapsing under my weight.  This is Mexico and I am a big guy.  I have to be especially careful not to break things here. They break on their own so easily. 

 

Lisa and Zane out did me by taking the time to paint the seat they had bought.  It’s really quite cute. Merry Christmas and here is to appreciating the simpler luxuries.  That is after all, one of the reasons we are here.

It’s starting to feel like home…sort of.   We are in a three bedroom house in town, next to the only other gringo household, a friend who runs a café in the canyon.  Her name is Tammy and she has been a huge help to us, finding us a place to live as well as many other things.  The house we’re in belongs to a woman who lived there with her two children.  Her husband and oldest son are in the US working and going to school.  She needed the money so this was, apparently, a good opportunity for her.  It felt really strange and sad to see her and her two children clean the house, pack up a few things (many are still here in the house) and head to her mothers house.  

It’s a nice house by Mexican standards, but compared to the States, it leaves a little to be desired.  Things like toilet seats, door knobs and shower heads are luxury items here.  We just got hot water the other day and it only works in one of the bathrooms and the kitchen.  They standards for building here are different than the States….no wait, let me start that over.  There are NO standards for building here.  It seems like most of this house has been pieced together with spare parts and I wonder if it will be livable in 50 years. 

After a few days in the house we moved our things in, rearranged the furniture and moved the families stuff into a spare bedroom and it’s starting to feel like home.   That being said, we did get Internet at the house so we can work and school Zane.  This was the reason we chose town instead of the canyon a couple miles away.   We also figured we can always hang around climbers and being down here is like being in real Mexico, way more than Playa.The people are so great.  There are lots of kids around for Zane, although at the moment he isn’t very interested.  He did have fun the other night with his waveboard and several other neighbor kids.  He let them use his board and they all had a ball.  He’s a bit of a superstar on that thing.  Even the climbers know him and are impressed with his ability to ride.  It’s good for his ego, I suppose. 

Home schooling is going pretty well.  Now that we are online here we can get into a routine and it will be better.   All in all Zane is doing well here and in general seems happy.  He has a lot of freedom and responsibility here.  Sometimes we have to reel him back in, but mostly he’s handling it all well.  There are horses and caballeros  all over here.  The horses look to be well taken care of.  They ride them in the streets all the time.  I know a woman who takes folks into the canyon for about $20 a day.  That would be a fun outing.  Jason is even interested.  We are continuing to learn here…about the culture, the language but mostly about ourselves and what it takes to make us happy.  We are discovering it’s the simple things like nature, community, sunshine, activity.  We know that for all of us, down time isn’t good.  We like to be engaged and busy.   I’m not sure what Christmas will be like here.  We won’t have many gifts, although I did get the present for Zane we were talking about.  I hope we can spend some time with locals and celebrating with them.  I wish I could bring you all here!  This is such a great experience.  I feel so lucky we can do this.  Love to you all!  

Mesas and plateaus drift by the window as the sun makes a gentle arc across the sky. That arc being so shallow that the day doesn’t seem to begin before it ends. The winter solstice is approaching.The great expanses of the southwest is laid out upon the horizon. Somewhere beyond that lies our destination, the northern desert of Mexico.Two days of driving will take us to our destination. Two days where time seems to pass by slow, but the days don’t seem to exist. Shadows become short, grow long again, and then disappear into the night.It turned out to be two and a half days of driving to arrive at our destination. There was some confusion at the border that set us back and we had to have an extra night in Laredo. Crossing the border it turns out that they did not have record of me taking one of our previous cars (that we no longer own) back into the US. They require that I bring the car back to a border immigration center. They may be difficult, or next to impossible. We put the van under Lisa’s name. Perhaps after this winter there will be enough screw-ups that we won’t be allowed back into Mexico all together.