December
Christmastime in the City
Traditional Christmas Piñatas with the 7 points/spikes. Check out my December newsletter to read about the significance behind them
Grinch Piñatas
Grinch Piñatas ft. Yuly
Our view as we were waiting for a red light to walk across the street. On Sunday afternoon the week before Christmas, the city center was sure to be crowded.
Christmas trees in the city center made out of poinsettia flowers. In Spanish, they're called "la flor nochebuena" (the "Good Night" flower.) Poinsettias are native to Mexico, hence their display above. In Nahuatl (the indigenous language the Aztecs spoke) the flower is called "cuetlaxochitl" (pronounced kwet-la-sho-she) which means "flower that withers."
A mountain of piñatas strapped to a car
Man holding a piñata bigger than he is
Piñatas in the metro. Transporting them in the cars was definitely interesting. Lots of stares from little kids
Christmas lights on the metropolitan cathedral
Life at Casa Tochan
Calander for December I
made for the office
Migration routes mural
A mountain of food donations
Christmas/New Years cards for the migrants made by students who came to visit
Our group of volunteers and staff!!!
Gaby our director explaining to the migrants what the "posada" song is. Check out my newsletter for more info on that
Our ponche for the posada at Casa Tochan
Pics of us singing the posada song from outside (above) and inside (to the right) at Tochan
Toasting with the ponche
Christmas gifts we wrapped ready to go for the migrants
Calander for Janurary ready to go
Posada Pics
It was our job to bring the pinatas :)
and bring them we did!!
We had church service before one of the posadas
Singing Silent Night
Stuffing the pinatas
The posada food for the day was sopes!!
Christmas Eve & Day
Silent Night in 4 languages (Spanish, English, German, Portuguese)
Christmas Eve Dinner (read more about my Christmas this year in my December newsletter!)
A gift for me!!
Christmas morning breakfast!!
Random Pics & Pretty Views
Me in the metro
View of the metropolitan cathedral and Mexican flag in the city center
View of a church with an incoming plane. I live pretty close to the airport
Chinatown views
A Christmas gift from Justin!!!
View from the terrace at Casa Tochan
sunset + moon
sunset + plane. I bet they had the best view
End of the Year Activities
Our coordinator Soliette and my host mom Yuly decided to take a group to go try traditional barbacoa meat on the 30th. We drove about an hour to the restaurant where we saw the meat steam-cooked underground, covered in bana leaves.
A bull they had outside of the restaurant
Watching them hand-make tortillas and sides
A tortilla cooking
People with instruments would walk around, offering to play music for a price. When they did, everyone would get up and dance
This is pulque. It's an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. It's native to Central Mexico (where I'm living) and has been made here for a thousand years. Sometimes the sap is fermented with fruits such as strawberry (see above) which gives it a fruity taste combined with the natural sour, yeasty flavor of the fermented sap.
Our group that I went with :)
Christmas Eve was spent at Yuly's parents' house where I made ponche all on my own for the first time. I learned how to cut up sugarcane which was NO JOKE!!! It was super hard and tough.
Blocks of brown sugar
These are tejocotes. They are a fruit native to Mexico and Guatemala and commonly known as the Mexican Hawthorn. They have a sweet and sour taste, similar to an apricot, and are used in ponche because they are in-season during Christmas/winter-time.
All of our fruits- sugarcane, guavas, apples, and tejocotes.
Everything in the big pot. Fruits, brown sugar, raisins, dried hibiscus, and water (after I took this pic.)
After about 3-4 hours of boiling and simmering, the ponche is ready
<3
A big bowl of hominy in a market. It's sold a lot during this time of year because it's used to make pozole, a Mexican soup commonly eaten during Christmastime through to the New Year.
Speaking of pozole, it's what we ate for dinner on NYE. The broth is made from Chicken and blended chiles, which give it a distinct red color. Inside is shredded chicken (or pork), hominy, cabbage, and radish. It's a simple, but super delicious dish, especially when paired with a homemade spicy salsa, tostadas, and crema. It's a super comforting dish, especially on a cold evening.
On NYE, you can find little stands on street corners selling homemade fireworks. I went with Yuly's nephew to buy a few for him and his cousins to play with throughout the evening.
These one work by scraping the string end on the pavement until it lights, then tossing them and eatching as they go off
Or, if you're brave enough, you can hold them as they go off, similar to a sparkler
