Hello again!
I hope the holidays were wonderful for all of you - filled with comfort foods and families together and wee ones and old ones and all that. Christmas here was my first away from home, and apart from seeming just like any other Thursday in Mexico, it was a good time. Christmas Eve, Simon and Elaine and I all went out to La Cueva - a bar/restaurant just off the beach that's tucked in a little shady grove of palm trees. We had drinks and took a few photos and played a few games of pool with the grown kids of the families who had stayed on for Christmas. It was funny, because the guys we played pool with were from New Jersey and New York, respectively, I figured that most of the folks who didn't go home for Christmas were probably either renting houses for a few months here or were Jewish.... and these lads seemed to be the latter. But they were sauced enough on daquiris and margaritas that when I bid them a Happy Hanukkah, they just blinked at me and managed to say quite thickly, "hows'at you knew?" Nevermind that they'd been drunkenly singing Hava Nagila just a few minutes earlier. :)

We ended the night back at Lucy's ranch on her rooftop deck. The sky here is absolutely unreal. I've never seen so many stars in my life - so many that the sky looks more like a shimmery net of lights, with just patches of black here and there. Gorgeous.

Christmas morning, Elaine let us sleep in until 10 am - although the dogs woke me at 7 anyhow.. just like they always do. The pups don't quite get the concept of days off. She walked the dogs and did all the morning duties and made coffee and breakfast to boot! After that, we headed down to the crowded beach and spent nearly three hours just lazing about, reading our books, and soaking up the sun. We arrived back at the ranch around 4 and set about making sushi! The last time I made sushi was in Mexico, which I thought was quite funny...
I made a tempura batter to fry up the white fish and the shrimp that we had, and Elaine cut long slices of avocado, cucumber and carrot. We ended up with about five fat rolls of sushi (the rice was PERFECTLY sweet and sticky) and yes, I did take photos of it all cut and arranged on the square plates and garnished with hibiscus flowers. We ate until we couldn't move. :)

Lucy returns from the States on Tuesday, which is coincidentally the very same day that I leave for Belize! I'm so excited and giddy and nervous and glad to see Jacob again after four and a half months.. I can't even believe it's only three days away!

Hope everyone is doing well. Family - send me pictures of Brennan's first Christmas, would you? I know Kiley probably took a billion... :)

xox