Happy Holidays!

 

 

It's been a busy holiday season once again at Hacienda Contreras. The weather has been beautiful - warm and sunny during the day but cooling down at night.

We went into town a few days ago for the children's fiesta, which of course was followed by the adults' fiesta. There were games for the kids, including sack races for both boys and girls.

 

 

The jardine, or town square, in Valle de Juarez is one of our favorite jardines in Mexico.  The Christmas tree was decorated, lights were strung, and people were out enjoying the festivities.

 

 

We had dinner that night with a nice group of friends at one of our favorite restaurants on the jardine that specializes in really good enchiladas suiaza. Then out to dinner again the following night at another favorite restaurant in the nearby town of Mazamitla. It was Barb and Sal's 40th wedding anniversary and a great celebration. Two of their five daughters and their son-in-law flew in for the occasion and all the campers were invited as well. It was a fun group!

 

 

Lots of good conversation, good food, and even mariachis to entertain us.

 

 

The traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Mexico is tamales, and we made them once again this year on Christmas Eve Day. Sal's sister Juana was up at the crack of dawn to have the corn ground for the masa, and she and Barb got everything ready for us to help assemble the tamales. Corn husks were soaked in water to make them soft and then coated on the inside with the masa. The filling, in this case shredded pork in a spicy sauce, was added and the corn husks were folded.

 

 

Even though Juana cut the proportions in half from last year, we still had a huge amount that were then steamed for several hours.

 

 

The tamales were served that night at our Christmas Eve Fiesta Dinner. In addition to the tamales, everyone brought a dish or two to share and it was quite a Christmas feast. Chris even got us a fresh turkey from a farm just up the road - can't get much fresher than that.

 

 

Christmas Day has been fairly quiet and it's been nice to have some time to sit down and get caught up. Tonight we'll get together again and try to demolish some of the leftovers, including some turkey soup.

I think it's time to plan some hikes and work some of this food off.