The Beginning of Christmas

I would say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but that would be a lie! As far as weather goes, it is more or less the same as it was in August when I arrived. I'm sorry to say that I'm losing my Canadian-ness as I think it's freezing cold here in Mexico. I bet it's 18degrees celcius but I am so cold. The thing is outside it's fine and I could easily wear shorts, but the house is like an icebox. But it seems like lots of people here enjoy dressing as though it's -30 with snow on the ground. There's girls walking around with Uggs and big mitts, children in thick jackets we would go skiing in. Neckwarmers, numerous sweaters... just about everything but snowpants. I'm just so glad I brought my sweat pants!!!! So so glad. I've been living in them so far this Christmas season. Eveyone here probably thinks I'm a slob (but they're probably right). Also I went two days without washing my hair! I showered just minus the shampoo ;) It's because I discovered how great short hair can be when it's not straight. If I braid the fronts when it's wet, it's awesomely crimped by mid-day! It's just so much more fun. And it's stiffer and says more slick when I haven't washed my hair that day. So thats's kind of nice.

I wanted to talk about more about this Christmas season thing. First of all, it's not so common to sit on Santa's lap in the mall here. Instead of writing a letter to him, the kids make one for the Nino Jesus. I think most Catholic families have a nacimiento in their house, with Mary, Joseph, the donkeys (everyone). Kids write the letter and put it near the nacimiento with one of their shoes (in case el nino Jesus doesn't know who wrote the letter).

There are these dinners called posadas which there are nine of and celebrated at friends and families homes. They say there are nine of them, but I don't know because I've gone to two. But I think it's like a countdown to Christmas... starting on the 16th and ending on the 24th. Christmas here is a very religious holiday. The posadas are enactments of Mary and Joseph looking for lodging the night Jesus was born. The hosts of the home are the innkeepers and everyone else is requesting a place to stay by singing a special song. Everyone is holding a small candle, and two people are carrying statues of Mary and Joseph. We go to three different houses or places in the yard, to ask to stay and supposedly the third is the one that let's us in. Here some of the prayers of the rosary are said, which are basically praises for the virgin Mary. The comes the pinata! I learned that there are seven points that represent the seven "most deadly" sins. The bright colours in the pinata represent temptation, the blindfold is faith and the stick is willpower. The candies inside are the riches of the kingdom of Heaven. So the signifigance is that when we are faithful and "break through" sin, God will reward us.

We also drank a drink called ponche, which is like a glorified apple cider with seasonal fruits and cinnamon sticks. At the end of the night the kids get a goodie bad with candies (and they were good too!). The first posada I went to was in a friend of Mama Ceci's house, where this particular group of friends meets every year. We ate tacos. The next one I went to was last night at one of my relatives houses. It was more casual and we ate hot dogs. But they were glorified hot dogs with jalepeno, tomato and mayo! Also we were all given a medium-large sized bag of M&Ms which I ate pretty rapido.