Our apartment in December: (we had just cleaned up for a party, so we figured it was a good time to take pictures!)
It has a great open floor plan: the kitchen flows into the dining room which flows into the living room. From all of these rooms we have a wonderful view of downtown (which you've seen on earlier webpages). The bedrooms are down a hallway, separated from these living spaces.
Although it is possible to buy real christmas trees here in Morelia (as well as artificial ones), we opted for a "christmas branch" instead: Margaret found a eucalyptus branch from a trash heap behind the apartment. Here it is, decorated with handmade ornaments from Tlalpujahua. It smells great - not like balsam fir, but nice nonetheless.
December 11, and it actually looks a bit like fall in the park:
The once-green fields around Morelia are now brown and it looks like the growing season is mostly over. Instead the dried corn can be seen in stacks like this, something I haven't seen in a long time in the US.
Horno Ortiz- more than a bakery!
It took us several months to discover this bakery: before that we were eating fluffy white bread. This bakery has delicious whole wheat bread and great sweet breads for breakfast.
Bread
as Art:
The bakers at Horno Ortiz are artists and they form beautiful intricate
shapes, entirely from bread dough. Below is the Virgin of
the Guadalupe:
After the 12th they took down the Virgen and created a remarkable nativity scene. The scene features the normal nativity (minus the baby Jesus who doesn't join the scene until Dec. 25; even the nativity scenes that people set up in front of their houses don't have Jesus until Dec. 25), but it also has scenes from many other Bible.
All of these figures are made of bread!!
Other bible stories:
Moses being put into the
river
David and
Goliath
Daniel in the lions' den:
The crusades:
And of you can even get great bread to eat, too!
This bakery is a 30 minute walk from home, so we almost burn off the calories we gain from eating their bread as we walk to and from it.
A few more views of Morelia, taken one December evening:
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .
Markets are full of piñatas, nativity figures, and nochebuenas (poinsettias).
Pastorales
This is the season of elaborate nativity plays, called "pastorales". We have only been to a couple of these plays but each community, church, or school seems to have had one. Unlike the serious ones we have in the US that focus primarily on the manger scene, the pastorales here center on elaborate conflicts between good (angels) and evil (devils). In the standard plot, the devils try their best to waylay the shepherds (and or Mary and Joseph) through tricks and lies and other devious behavior. But the angels usually come in and save the day in the end.
Here are some scenes from the end--of-year pastorale put on by the primary grades at Margaret and Sarah's school (Instituto Thomas Jefferson).
Devils and Angels in their big dance Angels chasing devils away from the shepherds
Wise men finally arriving
In profesional production in the community of Santa Maria, the plot was more modern. The angel and devils were superheros, while Mary and Joseph were trying to get to their bus to the border ("where they are building that wall. . .") on time. It ended with a tap dance routine (to speed up Mary's labor!). All in all, they are much more varied and funny than the kinds I am used to!
Sarah's Merengue dance at the school Christmas party. Notice the high heels and "Mexican" tank top (decorated with "jewels").
And other dance performances
The
tango
Jingle Bell
Rock (!)
December 21, Winter Solstice
We took a picnic dinner to a grassy hill overlooking the city to watch the end of the shortest day of the year. Complete with guacamole, tortillas, and wine, it was a fun celebration.
We've learned that this site will soon house the largest mall in Mexico, an 18-hole golf course, and houses and condos. They have already started building so we go as often as we can while at least some of it is still open fields. There are "wild" horses here and some cows: we don't know what will happen to them once the mall is built.