Christmas in Sayulita

It's hard to believe that it is Christmas when the sun is shining, the sky is a brilliant blue and the temperature is 28 degrees! We spent the holidays with Opa and Tita Edelmann as well as Mark's aunts, Jenny and Anne, who were visiting from Mexico City for the week. Mark's brother, Johann, was only able to join us for two days, but the girls were ecstatic to spend the holiday with their uncle.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with fondue on the balcony and the girls waited patiently outside Tita's condo before tearing inside and opening their gifts on Christmas morning. Heidi got straight to work building her new Lego sets with Mark while Nicole broke out the crafts and began designing dresses immediately.

Virgen de Guadalupe, Sayulita

We flew to Puerto Vallarta  from Los Angeles just in time to celebrate La Virgen de Guadalupe in the small bohemian surf town of Sayulita, Mexico. Every December 12, Mexicans gather to celebrate the miracle of the Virgin Mary's image which appeared on a piece of cloth given to a little boy named Juan Diego. The actual cloth is kept on display in Mexico City and people make pilgrimages from all over the country to pay honour to her image. In towns all across Mexico, the day is celebrated with parades, parties, bands playing in the streets, delicious food, and fireworks at all hours of the day and night.

La Jolla Beaches, San Diego, CA

The upscale neighbourhood of La Jolla, California is certainly a beautiful place to call home. It rightfully deserves its popularity and twenty degree days in December make it all the more appealing. We spent several afternoons at the beaches in the area enjoying some sunshine, sand and surf. The easy accessibility of these public beaches make them very popular, but on a random Wednesday afternoon both Pacifica Beach in Mission Bay and the Wind n' Sea Beach in La Jolla were both blissfully empty.