Recap of Christmas Vacation

I returned from our fabulous family Christmas trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Tuesday night.  We had a wonderful time in this lovely, quaint, artsy city but it was also good to be home!

The entire family was supposed to join us, but various circumstances prevented three of our daughters and two of our grandsons from coming. We did enjoy having our son, Will, from San Francisco (about to move to Hong Kong!) and our daughter, Dana, son-in-law and two grandsons from Albuquerque with us for the week.

The weather was perfect - cool at night and in the early mornings and mid-70's during the day. We rented a beautiful home with lovely terraces, an open-air dining room and gorgeous views.  The best part was it came with a cook, housekeeper and gardener. I was in heaven - what a let-down to come home to reality! Here are some photos I took of our home-away-from-home.

Front door - right on street!

Open dining room

View from courtyard up to first terrace

View from first terrace up two flights of stairs to rooftop terrace

Looking down to middle terrace/view of city beyond

View from rooftop terrace of town and churches

The city of San Miguel is hilly with narrow cobblestone streets and almost impossible to drive through. We walked everywhere or took taxis up the hills! It is steeped in history and so picturesque. I especially loved walking along and peeking into all the doorways that opened into large courtyards and plazas. It was fun to be there during the holiday and experience some of their Christmas customs. The church bells rang often during each day and more so on Christmas day. As is the Mexican custom, fireworks were set off for several days and on Christmas Eve well into the early morning hours.

La Parroquia - the iconic "parish church" on the main plaza

Nativity set up in center of plaza with live animals

One of the streets outside our house going down to the center of town

Typical streets - love the vines and bougainvillea

Love the colors of the buildings and, if you look closely, you can see the traditional 

cut-paper banners (Papel Picado) spanning the street

Portico on one side of plaza - note the piñatas that were hung all over town

Another side of the plaza, near the church

This was a pretty outdoor eating area. I loved the sign they had out which read "No texting; pretend this is 1995."

 Pretty fountain and courtyard

Of course, I must also post photos of my little ones. This was on Christmas morning opening stockings. They were amazed that Santa managed to find them in Mexico!

Drew-age 4; Grant-age almost 2

Now I must rest and catch up on my December Daily and Documented Life unPlanner (only one more week!)