It's New Year's Eve as I write this. We've had a beautiful holiday season this year. The poinsettas are in bloom everywhere. Here they grow to 5 ft tall as a garden shrub. Many years ago, this is where this well-known Christmas "flower" originated, and was named after the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico who brought them back to propagate in his greenhouses in the U.S. South.  Flower is in parenthesis because what looks like the red petals of this flower are actually leaves, also - no petals.

On Christmas Eve here at the Ranch all of the Mexican families, and their extended family members, got together for the traditional late dinner and bonfire afterwards.  The bonfire, loud music and fireworks, etc are part of another tradition that is pre-Christian in origin and meant to keep away bad spirits for the coming year. My post from 1/22/2012 talks about our first Chirstmas Eve in Ajijic in 2011 when we stayed in the heart of town. This year I was excited to find Gingerbread Men (cookies) at a local shop near the plaza. This clearly is a nod to the Gringo population, and I found them to be just like the ones you can get up North. So I bought some for the kids and handed them out in the evening. They all lined up and their moms prompted most to say "gracias". In the middle of the line was our Gardener who grinned and tried to make himself small. I indicated he was too tall to qualify. One little girl ran after me as I left and shouted "Thank you!". I said "You're welcome!", and she laughed and tried to repeat it.

These last photos are of two of the kids taking on pinatas slung over a branch on one of our huge trees here.  This practice is done either on Christmas Day or on New Year's. The littlest ones usually get help as it's not easy to break these. The older ones (usually the boys) are blindfolded to make it more challenging.