Christmas is over. The turkey has been eaten, the presents opened and returned and diets gone by the wayside.

Now we have New Year’s Eve to look forward to spending with family and friends. Many are having a quiet dinner at home or going to a house party and many others are going out to one the excellent restaurants here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala to partake of a gala New Year’s Eve Gourmet dinner with dancing and champagne at midnight.
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We have a lot going on this holiday season. All our children are home which is terrific. We are particularly happy our son and his fiancé are back safely from Phuket, Thailand.

We had a lovely adult Christmas Eve dinner at our house with family and dear friends and Christmas Day we also had dinner at home complete with all children and our almost 8 month old grandson and 6 year old step granddaughter. It was terrific to see Christmas through the eyes of young children and we are very grateful for our wonderful family.

We have three more formal dinners to go to over the next week and also a night out of dancing.

Things will settle down January 3rd, 2012 and then we have four weeks of relative peace and quiet before our family from up north start arriving for our son’s wedding in February. My husband, naturally, has invited them to all stay with us which is going to be a serious logistical problem which I will think about later.

By the end of February we will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and will look back on this time with fond warmth and treasure the great memories of us all being together.

Serious diets will be embarked on with great enthusiasm and rigid exercise programs reinstated.

Golf dates will resume and life will go on in our beautiful village in the sun.

We would like to wish everyone a Very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. We are all looking forward to 2012 being a better year for all

Well Christmas/Navidad is almost upon us once more and we are all busy decorating our houses for the festive season which drives some of us to drink more eggnog and Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry that perhaps we should.

One of things I have always enjoyed about this time of year is seeking out the perfect Nochebuenas (Poinsettias) to adorn our homes and gardens.
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Today, November 24th is American Thanksgiving Day and I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I think this is always a good time to count ones blessings and remember all the things we have, in fact, to be thankful for.

We have so much to be thankful for. Our son and his fiancé are returning home next week having been in Dubai and Thailand for over 15 months. Our very good friend is returning for 5 months. My daughter’s boyfriend will be home for Christmas. We will have our first Christmas with our 7 month old grandson and we are all healthy.
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I came home from shopping and various other chores this morning to find all kinds of photographs strewn around the living room.

Our daughter had been cleaning out her room and had found some real gems. Everything now is digital but there is something very nostalgic and warming to hold a real photograph in your hand.
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Yesterday was Halloween and today is the Catholic holiday of All Saints’ Day and tomorrow November 2nd is All Souls’ Day and also El Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead.

The Day of the Dead is celebrating around the world in different cultures but here, in Mexico, it has attained the status of a National holiday.

It is a day when Mexicans celebrate their loved ones, who have passed on. Altars are constructed honoring the dead and sugar skulls and marigolds adorn these altars along with the favorite foods and beverages of the deceased.
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Fall is officially here and it is decided cooler but still lovely and today is Canadian Thanksgiving.

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday as our son-in-law is a chef and has to work today.

It was truly a family affair but without the snow and football games. My husband did the appetizers and pre-dinner drinks. He made barbequed red and white wine salami with country Dijon mustard and chili gueras stuffed with an Asian beef and pork concoction reminiscent of the filling in Crystal Chop, a wonderful Asian dish with iceberg lettuce. He made a pitcher of Whiskey Sours which were very 30’s and reminded me of a cocktail hour with Cole Porter.
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We have lived here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala for 17 years and are proud to be inmigrados. We hail from Toronto, Canada and on Friday, July 1st I was having a drink with my friend, Judy Eager, at La Nueva Posada.

We had planned to go out for dinner when Michael Eager sat down with us and had a beautiful fat hamburger which looked absolutely delicious.

Being July 1st it was Canada Day and all the Canadians lakeside (well at least most of them) had congregated at La Nueva Posada as they do every year to celebrate.
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Yesterday was Mother’s Day up north and tomorrow, May 10th, is Mexican Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day is a very big deal here in Mexico. In fact there is not even a day for fathers.

We have been here for 17 years next month so I have enjoyed many Mexican Mother’s Days. Mother’s Day at the school was fabulous. The kids prepared entertainment for us and special food and drinks. Flowers and poems were always involved. By the time the presentation was over there was not a dry eye in the house. Cards were homemade with love and care and it was especially wonderful to be a mother.

The church also made a big fuss about mothers acknowledging them during the service. We were asked to stand while everyone clapped for us. This was always a moving moment.
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There are many diets out there that profess they will help us lose the weight we have put on over the holidays or, for that matter, any gained weight we might wish to lose for a multitude of reasons including quitting smoking.

I have been on most of them from Fit for Life, to the Grapefruit Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Atkins Diet and countless others including the infamous Drinking Man’s Diet.

I have had varying success with all of these programs but, for me, the best way to lose weight is to reduce bad carbohydratess and exercise more.

When I was younger and needed to lose a few pounds it was as simple as “no bread, no potatoes, no goodies”.

Today it is much the same. Cutting sugar out of your diet will make a huge difference very quickly and you will lose weight which also lowers your risk of heart attack due to high blood pressure, your cholesterol and your blood sugar levels. All of this is very beneficial to your health and well being.

Of course, you will look better and feel better too.

Everyone is different and everyone loses weight differently. Some people like the prepared meals brought to your door as in Jenny Craig or Nutri Systems while others prefer to cook their own food.

Weight Watchers seems to have the best rate of non drop outs and they have a new points plus program which seems to be very effective. You can join Weight Watchers right here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala where they have weekly meetings on Thursdays at 10:00 am at La Nueva Posada. You can also join online for free at the moment but you will not have the benefit (more…)

Today, December 12th, is the day that Our Lade of Guadalupe is celebrated. Also known as the Queen of Mexico this is the holiest of days and she is celebrated as the Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.

According to tradition a simple indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, saw a vision of a young woman December 9th, 1531, while he was on a hill in Tepeyac near Mexico City. He told the local bishop who asked for some proof. Three days later, according to legend the image of Mary appeared miraculously on his cloak as he was showing it to the bishop.

Today the cloak is displayed in the Basilica de Guadalupe nearby which is one of the most visited shrines in the world.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image and also holds the titles Empress of the Americas and Patroness of the Americas. Both Miguel Hidalgo (in the Mexican War of Independence) and Emiliano Zapata (during the Mexican Revolution) carried flags bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Guadalupe Victoria, the first president of Mexico, changed his name in honor of the icon.

Two accounts published in the 1640’s published in Spanish and Nahuatl, tell how during his walk from his home village to Mexico City early in the morning of December 9th, 1531 (Feast of the Immaculate Inception in the Spanish Empire) the peasant, Juan Diego saw a vision of a young girl 15 or 16 years of age surrounded by light on the slope of the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in the local language of Nahuatl the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor and from her words Juan Diego recognized her as the Virgin Mary. (more…)