35 Christmases in Puerto Vallarta

Happy Friday, everybody! Enjoy today – the last day of Fall and Winter starts tomorrow. It is another thing to celebrate here in Mexico in December and I am going to a private gathering to do just that.

In Vallarta, we have the first 12 days of the month devoted to the Patron Saint of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe, with processions and frequent canon explosions that make my teeth ring with each one – I live only a couple of blocks from the main church in town. Traffic is a holy mess, with buses to the center of the city stopping before Leys Supermarket, but that is what we do. Every year.

Then we take a four-day break of sorts. The Christmas Posadas begin, closing streets where neighbors sing to one another, recreating what happened in Bethlehem a couple of thousand years ago when Joseph and Mary were looking for shelter so they could have their baby.

I have spent 35 Christmases in Vallarta, and for the first time, baby Jesus is on the Malecon already. This has always worked in Canada when we pulled out our Nativity scene from storage and set it up, but here in Mexico, the manger always boasts an empty cradle that is filled with a baby Jesus sometime during the night of the 24th. Perhaps the city will remember to pull baby Jesus for another four days and remember to put him back in good time. Or, maybe it’s a bow to the rest of North America who are used to having baby Jesus the whole time.

Do you see what happens to me when I am home alone?

My only meeting yesterday was canceled, so I spent the day at my computer editing my overflowing inbox with articles from Vallarta Mirror contributors who suddenly have a great deal to say. Write, rather. That’s not a complaint; just sayin’.

You’d think I would have thrown some laundry in while I was just sitting here at my desk, but no. That’s my weekend plan.

Over the next week or so, Vallarta Mirror will have some interesting articles on real estate purchasing in town in light of the recent election in the US, some fascinating information on stem cell research, what the last day of Guadalupe processions was like, a Christmas party with Liberace and some musings from Renee Armand who is down on her farm in Tennessee.

Enjoy those and the last weekend before Christmas and Hanukah. Be sure to share your smiles with everyone you meet on the street.