Christmas Day and weekend

When I was young Christmas morning was always full of presents, candy filled stockings, laughing, screaming, camera flashes from mom and dad putting together all our new stuff. Being the second to youngest of six kids one of my favorite things Christmas morning was my stocking. My mom had us all take turns opening our gifts but stockings were free reign. I enjoyed my little bit of control I got with it. Last year we tried this approach with Alana and after getting her stocking she didn't even want to open her gifts. Seriously Issac and I opened her presents for her. This year we decided we would just make her and Joslin take turns but no stocking till after presents. She was so busy playing with the first 2 items that were opened that she didn't want the rest. I actually had to bribe her with the stocking to get her to open some more of her gifts and even then I had to help her. Abuela Tina (mi suegra) stayed the night with us Christmas Eve so she helped the baby open all her gifts. And somewhere between all that we managed to open our own gifts also. This was all finished before nine am. Oh I didn't mention that early in the morning as I was giving the baby her bottle I spotted a roach on my mother in laws pillow. I was mortified and told her it was there. She calmly flicked it off and killed it. I apologized and she laughed at me and said, "you should see the ones in Monclova they are this big." and she held her fingers an inch apart. Geess nothing like her not freaking out to make me feel better. But seriously Yuck Yuck Yuck.
Then we packed up the car and headed to Tuxpan which is only a three hour drive from where we live. I was again reminded that having Issac in my daily life is so important. I will never be thankful for our two years of life apart but I do know it has made me so much more grateful for him. He and his mom and I worked as a team and I don't think we forgot anything. Issacs sister lives in Tuxpan and in the year and a half I have been here we have never visited her. I was very excited to get to see some more of Mexico and I was most definitely not disappointed. I'm sad to say that I have now lost all my pictures from the trip but I am holding them in my heart. I love the mountains and to actually be driving in them was so great. We of course saw the typical random cow on the side of a busy street, and the people haling items you would swear were much to heavy for there carts. But aside from all that we saw the splendor and imagination of our God. He really is so amazing and nothing can remind you of this as much as nature. We actually took the Cuotas which are the toll roads and I was afraid we wouldn't see as much nature but boy was I wrong. To all sides of us where tall rippled mountains. At times they looked like a blanket you could curl up in. Everything was so green and fresh and I just felt like I could reach out and touch each mountain. Thats the funny thing about mountains they are deceiving like that, you always feel so close to them but it takes hours to actually drive up close to them. Issacs mother had warned us that there would be part of the drive that we wouldn't like. She was talking about the stretch of desert which we actually loved. For the first time in my life I saw a true glimmer on the horizon that looked like an oasis. Mind you I wasn't hot and dehydrated so I knew what it was but how cool to see it. I read a lot and flashes of all the stories I had read that were in deserts and mountains came flashing back to me. How you can look for miles and miles and see nothing absolutely nothing except far in the distance the mountain that is you destination. I did get to see one of the famous huge aunt hills. I so didn't believe my husband at first when he said that's what it was. It would have come up to your knees!!!! The whole way there we had the volcanoes in view. There are two but one is so tall that it has snow on it and no smoke. The slightly smaller one was smoking the whole time we were there. The view was truly beautiful and has inspired me to try to paint it. I'm getting all excited again just thinking about it, and could go on and on about it but your my readers sake I will leave that as is.
We stopped at the rest area before getting off the toll road because knew it would be our last chance for a fairly clean tinkle with the hopes of toilet paper (we did have our own in case). Getting into Tuxpan we were privileged enough to have to wait for a heard of cows to cross the street without any one to push them a long. I don't understand how the owners of these free roaming animals are not afraid for their safety.
Tuxpan has a great statue of an Indian as you drive into town and I so wanted to show you but maybe next time.Finally we arrived at his sisters house. We were greeted with hugs and kisses and Alana was so excited to see her cousin. He is two years older than her and she drives him batty but they are so cute playing together. That afternoon Issac and I left the girls with the family and took a walk alone. It was so nice we never get to do that kind of thing. We happened upon these people who were dressed in strange costumes and doing an Indian style dance in front of a little house type thing that had a baby in a manger. We decided to take a closer look because we assumed it a Catholic thing due to the baby Jesus. They had sticks in there hand and at one point this kid jumped in on their dance and one of the older dancers bonked him on the head. After watching close up for a min or so we got an eerie feeling and headed back home. On our way home we saw them round a corner and they were dancing up the street we were taking to get back. We rushed so we could get Alana outside to see them. His sister then explained to us that the town of Tuxpan was originally a canable town. When the Spaniards come they not only killed them but ate them. She said these people state that they practice the religion but don't eat humans and instead of idols they worship baby Jesus. Sounds like they have Jesus a little confused. As most of you know every town in Meixco has a certain meal that they are "famous" for. Well in this town it is a soup that was originally made out of human flesh, but now they use chicken. That is just weird and gross and no we didn't try any.
The next day we headed to the beach and for the life of me I cant remember the name of the town. Ill ask my husband later and post it in a comment. This was another beautiful drive but I also get motion sickness very easy so I wasn't feeling to hot upon arrival. I wasn't really sure what to expect because they kept saying we were going to the beach but when they showed me pictures it was a pool. Then when we got there and said we were hungry they said it was a restaurant that we were going to. By now I was pretty confused. This place was so cool and there were others exactly like it all up and down the strip. Basically you walk in the front of this open air restaurant and it had a pool for the kids with slides included and if you just walk strait through and out the back there is the beach. So you have the comfort of the table and chairs and the safety of the pool and the view of the ocean. What a great idea. The sand on the beach was very dark but Im not huge on sand no matter the color so to me it was as pretty as any other beach. I love the sound of the waves and grabbing stones and shells as the waves recede is fun. Issac of course had to go as far out as he could into the ocean and had to be called back in by the life guard. It really wasn't that warm but Mexicans are crazy so the beach and water was pretty full. The food was marvelous and was seafood of course. Issac got a grilled fish, it was the whole fish simply cut in half and slapped onto the grill. It was a little over a foot long. My meal was the same old same old cocktail because Issac was gone when it was time to order and his mom and sister were not to patient about helping me pick something. But I got to sample Issacs and my brother in laws. He had marlin with a bar-b-q sauce and shrimp and octopus under it. Yummmmm his was the best.
The last day of our stay there we got to out to where my brother in law works. He does fishery and they actually lived out on the fish farm for seven years. They only recently moved into Tuxpan. It was actually interesting to see the huge fish tanks and to hear how they keep them cleaned out. Alana of course loved seeing the fish and had fun running all over with her big cousin. He obviously loved being there. There is a lot of land and lots of stuff to get into. We got to knock pecans off a tree and eat them and go next door to see some cows. This day was a blast and a great ending to the trip. We headed home after eating and once back in our apartment decided it was the perfect time period for a trip.
I look forward to going back and will have pictures the next time. Thanks for reading.