My husband’s extended family had a 30-year tradition of going to Mexico for Christmas break. (2010 was the first year that no one went.)  When my husband was younger, they used to drive from Chicago to San Carlos, which is 6 hours south of Tuscon, with 8 kids.

My husband and I have been together for almost 10 years (we’re coming up on our 8th anniversary), and I have participated in this tradition 3 times: in 2002, 2004, and 2007. I hope we can continue this tradition with our kids sometime in the future, but for the time being we feel it’s not safe to continue.

I wanted to record what I experienced the few times I went, in case we are never able to go again.  :(

So, what do we do when we go to Mexico?  Not a whole lot. But that’s the beauty of it, really.  We camp on the beach, relax, and celebrate Christmas rather simply.

The weather is nice.  (It’s usually about 80 degrees during the day, but at night it drops into the 40s.)

Swimming – The first year I went I was really adventurous. After setting up camp and eating dinner, we went for a night swim in the freezing water because the bioluminescent algae made it too hard to resist.  (Basically the water glowed all around you as you moved and swam that night.)  It’s definitely worth Googling.

It was too cold to swim the other years. Even for my husband, who loves the water, skipped out one year.  But sometimes the water is plenty warm.

We also did a lot of playing on the beach;

going to town to take a shower, eat yummy food (hot churros, tacos, hotdogs, quesadillas, and yummy pastries), and shopping for Mexican handicrafts at the Guaymas market;

telling stories around the campfire;

going to the nearby sand dunes;

and performing camp duties (including but not limited to: building the port-a-potty, gathering firewood/cactus, cooking and cleaning up after meals, etc).

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we would always take donated goods (clothes, school supplies, building supplies, and toys) to the neighboring fishing village. We always did a pinata for the kids and would play some soccer with the village boys and men.

One year when I was sorting through the clothes a found this J-LO tank that read, “now everyone can be sexy.”

On Christmas Day in 2004, we were cleaning up breakfast when about 25 Federales with machine guns started running around our camp (which was in a dried up ravine, and not to far from a really old airstrip). They were looking (probably to avail) for a downed drug running plane.

Christmas dinner- A turkey, cooked by Grandpa Poulsen, in a stone-lined pit, with everyone else bringing a dish to pass.

Nativity and a family pinata:

Let us not forget that Christmas is also Jord’s b-day. This was a awesome b-day cobbler I made him one year.

And finally, here’s a look at our little camp from further down the beach:

Kennecot Cooper Mine

Then 1979ish Spring 2010

Oh a long time to come

I remember it well

Alongside a dam a farmer did dwell

He lived with his woman

His wife was supreme

His name was Dale

And his love was ice cream.

Boys

Hyrum Pratt

Levi ?

Wish names

Colson

Alanson

Girls

Liberty (Libby) Grace

Sophie Grace

Sophie Kate

Sophie Blair

Ally

Wish Name

Blythe

Everest, Beyond the Limit- There are 2 seasons on Netflix. The second season was especially nail biting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbzbjNKO4ns

180  South-The scenery in this was spectacular. I will go to the Patagonia sometime.

http://www.180south.com/trailer.html

Blindsight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzxGJaFr7jQ

Barbie Musketeer

Can you find Jordan?

Jordan's, DD's, DS's, and Julie's

Here is a funny story about the 3 smaller pumpkins. Last year I threw our old pumpkins into the green waste when they started to decompose. The lid was left open and snow and water filled up in the waste. In the spring it started to stink so I dumped the water out into a patch of dirt. Come summertime I noticed that pumpkins were growing in that patch of dirt. I asked my nieces if they planted pumpkins there and they said no. It only took me a week to realize that the pumpkins came from the water and pumpkins seeds that I dumped out of the green waste. Seven small pumpkins grew. I got the idea for the glitter pumpkins from a friend last year and got the templates from here.

I loved the random placement of the gray rocks among the brightly colored wildflowers.

We set up base camp at Elkhorn crossing, 5 miles in. (It is 16 miles one way.)

1000 ft. walk from our base camp. Kings Peak is the tallest one in the middle.

The rest of the pictures were taken by my brother. (I hope he doesn’t mind me using them.)

The ascent.

Gunsight Pass

This was taken on the descent. The elevation was starting to take a toll and all I wanted to do was take a nap.

Lightning storm tuck.

For the record, we hiked over 20 miles that second day, I lost my sunglasses, threw out my shoes when I got home.

I sewed up some easy  reversible superhero capes for the kids.  I had so much fun doing the appliqué and putting the designs together. I used my sisters Cricut machine for some of the designs. The tutorial I used can be found here.

As I was throwing out our old kiddie pool I stopped and thought is there anything I can use this for. Forever ago I talked about a book that was about re purposing stuff and making them into bags. I remembered that I saw they had made an old Twister game into a beach bag. I tried making the pool into a beach bag. It worked except that I can’t sew the handles on without breaking my machine. If you have any ideas how I can attach the handles that would be great. I have thought about using some grommets.

A Scooby Doo throw for my ds for Christmas.