Navidad en Mexico -- Christmas in Mexico

My husband and I will be leaving on the 19th for Mexico so we’ll be spending Christmas on our own in Mazathlan – a first for on our own and a first for Matzatlan. The children are adults with children of their own so they want to build their own family traditions. I’m all for this! I absolutely believe that they should be creating their own customs and they have my full support. We had a family get together today, which was chaos but a fun, lovely chaos.

I’ve been so very lucky to have spent Christmas, or some time in the month of Christmas in different countries so have sampled some fabulous traditions. Fo many years, I had Christmas in the UK with Christmas pudding and mince pies (niether are to my liking but my husband adores both!), crackers (filled with little silly jokes, toys and hats) and boxing day celebrations. Every year we would visit an outdoor market in Bath where the aroma of mulled wine mixed with cedar, woodburning fires and other holiday smells filled me with a true welcoming sense that Christmas was almost here. These little stalls filled with fasinating handicraft and traditional items were set against the beautiful backdrop of the Bath Abbey. Often there were choral groups performing a whole medley of Christmas songs. It’s an experience that’s hard to beat.

I’ve also been in Copenhagen and visited the open air handicraft stalls in Tivoli Gardens with twinkling lights filling the park and making it a fantasy land. We also watched the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Castle, the Royal Residence, during a light snow fall and then warmed up in a local pub with grog (warmed, spiced wine) and pepper nuts (the worlds best small spiced cookies). There was also a business trip to Stuttgart where I spent an afternoon wandering through outdoor handicraft stalls and again, the smells filling the air just gave me a sense of what an old fashioned Christmas must have been like before the days of Black Friday at the malls and shopping on-line.

One year, my husband and I were traveling through Paris at Christmas time when our flight was cancelled. We didn’t consider this a hardship at all because Paris during the Christmas season is a fantasy of lights and I think it’s actually known as the “City of Lights”, although they do celebrate Bonne année (happy new year) more than Christmas. We took the train into the heart of Paris for dinner and we were lucky in that there was snow and ice so The Avenue des Champs-Élysées had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The trees that lined this beautiful street were covered in strings of lights making it incredibly romantic.

I do really miss the outdoor markets found in Europe because they are all so special but my husband and I are forming new traditions now that we are living in the US. Visiting the beautiful Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania is definitely one that we’ll keep. I guess that it was all of the poinsettias there this past week that really got me into the Navidad en Mexico spirit. And now, I’m looking forward to Christmas in Mexico. It’s a land of fiestas (festivals) and Posadas (processions) leading up to Christmas and I’m excited to see and learn about new customs and traditions.

There are probably as many Christmas traditions as there are families. Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you fulfill them and have a happy and wonderful holiday.

Please send me some of your own traditions – I’m interested to learn how you celebrate the holidays.

Whatever you do to celebrate – have a very wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with family.

Autumn - My favorite time of year!

Maryland -- previous year. Now waiting for the color this year!

Autumn has officially arrived; at least for those of us on the East Coast of the US and every year I declare that it’s my favorite time of year.  I’m not sure if it’s because my birthday falls on the first day of autumn and it’s always a day that I look forward to or because I have retained the anticipation and excitement of a new school year.  At 63, you’d think that these feelings would have well subsided by now but I still secretly browse all of the school supplies knowing full well that I have plenty of binders, pencils and pens at home.

The arrival of cooler weather and changing leaves always makes me remember the cool crisp mornings when our marching band met to practice on a heavily dewed football field.  Growing up on a farm in the mid-west, I longed for school to start so that I could meet up with friends again and come out of a “lazy shell” that surrounded me during the hot summer days.

This past week as I turned 63 on the first day of autumn, I’ve been reflecting on my “own autumn” in my life.  A time in my life where I have to face the fact that I’m not 40 any more – nor am I even 50.  But that’s OK, I’m healthy, active and have a huge base of interests and still have a very long bucket list.

A quickly approaching event on my bucket list is a trip to Japan to celebrate our 20^th wedding anniversary.  Both my husband and I have visited before but never together.  This will be a real treat, especially as we’ll be staying in ryokans, traditional inns, and trying to absorb as much of the culture as we can.  The Japanese maples should be flaming reds and will make lovely photos that I can add to my journal for lasting memories. 

There are many more things on my bucket list – starting this blog is one of them.  I’ve wanted to start it for some time but just never “got around to it” but always in the back of my mind was something that a manager told me when I first started working.  “You always find time to do the things that you really want to do.  Never tell someone that you ‘don’t have time’”.  A powerful message.  So here’s the start of my blog – FINALLY!