Hello from Yakima

This morning is our 3rd day straight of walking the malecon. We walked to the Fisherman's Monument which is about 1 1/2 miles from our condo and back. It's a beautiful, sunny, blue skies, not a cloud, perfect breeze, 74 degrees day here in Maz. In the link below, the first image is Fishermen's Monument and a little bit about it. Very interesting I think. Mazatlan has many, many monuments and this one is one of the best known. Some of you who have been to Mazatlan will recognize the monument. It feels so great be back to getting in some exercise. http://www.pacificpearl.com/monuments.htm

This week we've started getting back into an exercise regimen. Started out yesterday, Monday, December 28th, with a 1 mile walk to our favorite palapa restaurant, Lupe Locos, on the beach. Then, after a great breakfast walked back another mile to our condo gym for some weight training. It felt soooooo good. Greg is adding running the stairs in our building to his program. We have 17 flights so that's quite a workout. Our gym consists of weight stacks. Very different from the equipment at "Curves for Women", where I have been working as a Circuit Coach, September - November. I'm going to try to get used to them and workout consistently. I think walking, weights, yoga and water aerobics will be my exercise regimen for the next 5 months. Please wish us luck on our exercise New Year's Resolutions. Good luck to everyone on your New Year's Resolutions too! Remember the Buddhist Proverb, "If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on ...

We enjoyed our Christmas Day dinner with Dick and Jan. Yes, you have seen lots of pictures of Dick and Jan this holiday season. They are very special friends of ours down here in Maz. They live in Gunnison, Colorado and spend 6 months in Maz too. They are like family to us. We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings at their condo on Christmas Day. Dick prepared a 15 pound turkey. Jan was creative and made her own napkin holders. Aren't they festive! She also created her own centerpiece. It's small Christmas balls with a lighted Christmas necklace coiled around a candle. Very very creative and beautiful. Jan's beautiful Christmas dinner table is set!! We had a great Christmas dinner with Dick and Jan. My Christmas gift from Dick and Jan was a "Jelly Lens Kaleidoscope" for my camera lens. This is the effect I got when taking a picture of the centerpiece. What a beautiful effect! I think it would make a beautiful Christmas card.

Below are pictures of our Christmas morning together. December 25th here in Mazatlan started at midnight with the ringing of church bells in the distance, the popping of fireworks and then at 3:00 am the infamous Banda music playing in the distance too. It's such a contrast of sounds but they are the sounds of Christmas in Mexico. We got up about 7:00 am to 65 degrees, slight overcast skies, and a slight breeze. The street was very quite this morning, not much traffic and the malecon had just a few walkers/joggers/bicycles, etc. Very pleasant Christmas morning here in Maz. Greg started Christmas Day with a cup of coffee with Baileys Irish Cream. I started my Christmas Day with International Delight French Vanilla in my coffee. Then, we began to open our gifts to one another. Greg was happy to get an LL Bean Fly Fishing book for Christmas. He was sooooo excited to get a new swim suit from Santa. Santa was a little worried if he would like the swim suit. It fit him perfectly and he ...

We had a wonderful tamale dinner at our condo on Christmas Eve. Our good friends, Dick and Jan from Gunnison, Colorado joined us for the evening. They live in Mazatlan 6 months of the year too and are our neighbors here at Las Gavias Club Residencial. After we see what Santa brings us tomorrow morning, we will be going to Dick and Jan's condo for Christmas dinner tomorrow evening. They are fixing Turkey with all the trimmings. Yummmmmmm.

Have fun and a very Merry Christmas to all! ! http://www.noradsanta.org/

Today we went to the Orfanatorio de Mazatlan to visit the children and bring them Christmas gifts. Greg, concentrating on his drive through the streets of Mazatlan on our way to the orphanage. The children were excited to see us and very curious about the big bag we brought in. Diana, the orphanage mother, opens the Christmas present we brought for all the children. They seemed to be happy with the 4 DVDs "Mundo Animales" (World Animals). I passed out the Christmas candy treat bags to each of the children. Diana allowed them only 1 piece. Good luck making sure that happens. In the entry of the orphange is a beautiful tree, nativity scene, and stockings hanging for each of the children with their names. Notice baby Jesus is not in the manager. He is not placed in the crib until Christmas Day, when he we born. Diana explained to us that a "senora" had made these stockings for the children. Not sure who that was though. They were beautiful stockings.

Greg is picking up tamales at "Maz Tamales" in old Mazatlan. He picked up chicken, pork, and pineapple tamales. We've had them before and they are sooooo delicious!! As is the tradition in many Mexican familes, we'll be having them for Christmas Eve dinner at our home with our good friends, Dick and Jan. The ladies at "Maz Tamales" preparing the tamales.

The girls shown in the picture below are currently living at FloreSer here in Mazatlan. This is a girl's home that was opened last February, 2009 as a place for troubled teens to take refuge. They now have 9 girls but 3 of them had gone back to their families for the holidays. Pictured below are 6 of the girls with their home mothers, left, Brenda and, right, Alicia. The girls are from left, Azucena, Lupita, Jenifer, Karen, Alexa and front/floor Rosario. They range in age from 13-17. The home was very clean and comfortable and the girls seemed very happy. They understood more English than they could speak and when we asked what they might need in their home, they were able to get across they needed 2 more lamps. Our good friends, Dick and Jan are taking them the lamps this afternoon. We left them each a small Christmas present. We went back today and took them some games. They have 2 weeks off from school and the home mother's explained they did not have any games and that woul...

The choral group, singing in the video clip below is from the Municipal Center of the Arts here in Mazatlan. They performed in a free holiday concert for us at Las Gavias Club Residencial where we live. The group, Coro de Camara Guillermo Zarabia, are instructed at the school by Maestra Marta Felix who also makes her home at Las Gavias. Maestro Enrique Patron de Rueda, who is a very well known Orchestra/Conductor in Mexico and lives here in Mazatlan at Las Gavias, helped sponsor this concert. Below is a link to his website. http://enriquepatron.com/enriquepatron/patron.swf The group was just fabulous and such a treat for all of us during this Christmas season. Enjoy this short video clip of one of the Christmas carols they sang for us. Sorry but I'm having trouble with uploading the video clip. Check back later.

I went to a great Broadway performance at the Angela Peralta Theater here in Maz last evening. It was put on by "Dance, Inc." of Mazatlan. The group is instructed by the "Professional School of Contemporary Dance of Mazatlan." http://www.culturamazatlan.com/cma-en.php?seccion=cma-esc-prof-danza-en They performed dance/song clips of great Broadway performances such as: Chicago, Hair Spray, A Chorus Line, Cabaret and Big Spender/Sweet Charity. It was very entertaining, amazing dancing and so professionally done. I really enjoyed the evening with my friend Jan. Before the performance, we had dinner at the La Tramoya Restaurant in the Plazuela Machado where the theater is located.

We still have a few Christmas decorations here at our condo in Mazatlan. Most of them we took back to our Yakima condo. So we thought we'd put up what we had. It was fun to help get us in the Christmas spirit. Enjoy! We're so happy to have a few of our grandchildren's sweet faces to look at during Christmas this year. We miss all of them so much. This is Christmas gift given to us by our children just before we left for Mazatlan. Just couldn't get the lighting right on this photo. But this is our terrace all lite up with Santa. Greg enjoys making Santa Claus wave at all the children on the malecon and they always wave back. There are poinsettias for sale everywhere in Maz. You know it is the flower of Mexico. Another shot of our 8 foot Santa Claus. These are the only snowflakes we'll be seeing this Christmas. Aren't they sooooo beautiful! Each and every snowflake is different. Just like these my sister Deannie and her husband Scott gave to us as a Christmas g...

This Christmas fundraiser breakfast for the poor was held on Saturday, December 12th in the arts and crafts building at the cruise ship docks here in Maz. It helped raise money to provide Christmas chicken dinners for 2,000 families. The dinners will be delivered to them on Christmas Eve morning. The building was decorated with festive pinatas and Christmas music, some we even recognized. Our good friends, Dick and Jan from Colorado, went with us. Dick and Greg are served breakfast. The breakfast consisted of beef machaca, chilaquilles, soupy refried beans served with tortillas. We also enjoyed some yummy pastries. A nice Mexican family sat at our table and the mother had a 4 month old baby boy named Joseph. Mother and Joseph Group photo. Jan enjoying baby Joseph. Rough translation of the message on the back of the shirts the wait staff were wearing was, "Share your Christmas with someone". Front of shirts. Again, a rough translation is "learn to give back when one gives...