Christmas in San Carlos

We took Lynne to the airport Thursday morning and got back in time to go to the Esperanza Azteca Sinfonica Christmas Concert in Guaymas.  These kids are just amazing.  This was a real Mexican Christmas experience-lots of energy expended by all these kids.

On Friday night, Cindy kicked off the holiday week with a lovely dinner party at her house.  

Jim, Guadalupe, Margene, Jesus, Larry and Judy

Our Wonderful Cook and Hostess

Joe brought down the lamb for Cindy
from the states for the occasion.

Our chef-friend at work on the crown roast

We had Rachelle over for dinner one night while she was
in town for the concert.  Rachelle is the one who introduced
us to San Carlos.  She now lives in Tucson.

It was a gorgeous sunset on Saturday night.  I just had to take a gazillion pictures and it still doesn't adequately show you how incredible it was.

Bill and Cheryl came over on Sunday for a gift
exchange.  For some reason, this was the only
picture I took.

By far one of the highlights of the week was the arrival of Jim and Karen Eakes who had been having one hell of a fall.  Jim got prostate cancer and underwent surgery and Karen found a lump on her neck which ended up indicating that she had a bladder cancer.  She had just undergone two treatments of chemo in Seattle and one in Tucson, but they made it down here finally with smiles on.  It was so good to see them!!  We had a great dinner with them and Cindy at Defines.

Another beautiful sunrise

Brunch at Gustavo's with Cheryl and Bill and
 Leslie and Bobby and their two
 friends who will be housesitting for them 

A morning walk along La Posada Beach on the 23rd
There was only one other person on the beach-a very young, beautiful
lady who Boo sidled up to, sat on her skirt and made himself right at home.
Incidentally, we were told that she bathes nude here in the morning!
She taught me how to tie a turban-I'm determined to try it ala Diana Keck!

A walk on the beach along Manglares on another day-happy pup!

Another "to die for" sunset

If you want to get yourself in the Christmas spirit, there is no better way to do it than to head out to La Manga for the annual Posada-a party that celebrates Mary and Joseph's walk through the streets, looking for a place to stay for the night.

There was a tree at the Soggy Peso with childrens' names attached.  Members
of the community choose a child's name from the tree and buy gifts for that child.

There are so many adorable kids.  How about these cuties!?!

This is one of the teachers with kids and Santa.

Very content little newborn

The moms all lined up by the mural, watching proudly
as their kids perform

See Mary and Joseph in the front there?  They are all singing a song, asking
for a room in the inn.

These are the moms singing in response that they have no room.

Asking at another house

They may be poor here, but what an amazing location!

Dancing

And more dancing

And the swinging at the piñata.  

Beto tried his best, but the snowman was too strong!

You can't imagine how well behaved, how happy and content these kids are.
They are sitting very still, waiting for their names to be called for presents.

They gave us this wonderful shell as a gift!

And Christmas eve was just wonderful.  We wanted to stay home and watch the boat parade from our deck.  We had Joe and Margene over for a wonderful tenderloin-the best we ever had-Sonoran beef is something else!  And the boats were just spectacular.  The parade was a great opportunity to yell and holler at the boats!

Christmas morning, we exchanged exactly 3 gifts and decided to look for a restaurant that was open for brunch and then take a walk on the beach.

Since we had so little under the tree, we put our love, family
and friends under there, too!

We found a nursery and bought ourselves a poinsettia
and wrapped it in a Lady of Guadalupe scarf to make
it more festive.

Jim's new shirt

My present-I hated to open it; it looked so beautiful!

And what was inside was also!

So many restaurants on our strip were closed, so we headed out to Algodones and took a chance that the San Carlos Hotel Palapa Bar would be open.  It wasn't, but the very nice manager there asked one of the waiters to clean up the area on the deck for us.  Once again, on a holiday, someone kindly made an exception for us with our very cute pupster!  A table of our own!

So happy to be able to eat with our little Boo

This hotel is just gorgeous.   Hard to believe that hardly anyone is here and
the few that there are are inside eating at Joey's Bistro.  We hit the jackpot!

Just waiting for our food to arrive

Jim's breakfast:  tortilla, salsa, fried cheese, fried eggs,
plantains, peas:  Huevos Motulenos

My wonderful Mimosa
What was really fun was sending this picture
to my cousin, Mike, and having him call us
on FaceTime!  Great seeing and talking to
Mike, Sue and their son, Matt!

The Happy Couple Selfie

Pelicans overhead

The best part of the morning is watching Boo loving up the beach!  We walked the whole way down to the Soggy Peso!

Passing the dunes

We got home in time to make some stuffed mushrooms for a party at Selena Gildez home (we could only stay for a little while, so, alas, no pictures) across the street and for dinner Christmas night at Margene and Joe's:  an assortment of wonderful appetizers, red king crab legs, Caesar salad and sourdough bread.  Margene made the most incredibly wonderful flaky dessert that I forget the name of-see below.

The view from their deck

The Gang

The guys

Suzanne and Cindy

Larry and Judy
New Englanders!  Larry is from Marblehead and Judy from Newport!

The hostess with the mostest

Margene's fabulous dessert

The table was just gorgeous:
wrapping paper for a tablecloth with
ribbons and napkins folded like bows

We danced, we laughed, we talked continuously and ate many, many delicious crab legs.  It was right out of a Tom Jones movie.