Happy New Year!

This year we had a very low-key New Years Eve which consisted of relaxing and spending time with friends.

 

First, I completed a 3,000 piece puzzle.  Not all in one day, of course, but I just happened to finish today.

Then there was much relaxing and enjoying.

 This is pretty true for us.  I hope it can come true for all of you this year, too.  :)

Happy New Year!!

Africam Safari...Big Holiday Fun??

So this morning we got up all excited to go on a trip down to Cuernavaca to see the sites, have a nice lunch, etc.  It's a holiday and we want to get out!  Then we came to the startling realization that it was, in fact, a Monday, and on Monday almost all the tourist sites are closed.  BOO!!  So we were flipping through our guidebooks for something else to do, when Eric's eyes lit up ad he whispered, "Africam".

So what is Africam you may ask?  According to the guidebook some rich maniac noticed that the arid, dry area just south of Puebla was the exact same climate as one might find on the Serengeti.  He then imported a bunch of animals and set up a safari park called Africam.  One can drive his car through and spot exotic animals.  Eric had worked himself into a frenzy over Africam before we even arrived in Mexico, and finally a perfect opportunity presented itself to visit!

 The safari begins....with a handy ATM machine located just to the right too!

Here are some giraffes.  I never thought about it before, but I like how they tie the giraffe food to a tree.

Here are some possibly insulting, definitely authentic native tents.

This extremely exotic llama is hamming it up for the camera.  Please don't spit, please don't spit...

I dub this creature the Ratpig!  I do not know what its real name is, but Ratpig works for me.

Best watch yourself.

There he is!  The extremely dangerous Rhino having a very menacing nap!

So zebras are cool to hang out with the Rhino but I'm not?

 Flamingos!!!  Finally, I get to see some flamingos in Mexico!!

 

A vulture, vulting.

Yikes, this animal looks supernaturally scary.

 Yes, that's right folks.  Someone hired a cab to drive him through Africam.  I wonder how that fare negotiation went...

Towards the middle/end Africam got really boring.  We just had to sit and wait in our cars forever because there were about 10,000,000 people there and traffic to get into the vicious animal enclosures was crazy bad.  Eric was heartbroken, having built Africam up in his head over the past year and half.  He looked at me and said, "It's my Xel-Ha."  Aww.

 One last look at a sleepy tiger.

Did we have fun at Africam?  Sort of I guess.  Will we go back?  Probably not.

Finally...Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

It's finally Christmas!!  This morning we got up and tore open our presents.  Thank you to all who sent some, it was very nice.  We got totally into it too.  We had a You Tube video of a fireplace looping over and over on the TV while we streamed that radio station in Seattle that plays non-stop Christmas music.  It makes me chuckle to hear "Christmas in the Northwest" come on the radio while I'm sitting in Mexico City.  Tee-hee.  Anyway, it was a good day that ended with some proper feasting!

Even our rad peacock got into the holiday spirit!  

BTW...Fun fact, in Spanish a peacock is a "pavo real"...aka a royal turkey.  Interesting.

Then we gave ourselves a Christmas present and made everyone's favorite...Thanksgiving dinner!!  We even found cranberry sauce!!  

Well, this was our second and last Christmas in Mexico.  Now we'll put away our psychedelic tree and not see it again until India 2013.  This time next year we'll be back in the States where it's cold and potentially snowing.  Looking forward to it :)

Merry Xmas Eve!!

This morning we got up bright and early and went to Costco to prepare for two days and two nights of feasting!  The cooking really helped me keep my mind off the presents, and how I wasn't home.  Que fun!

A pre-dinner Xmas Eve snack!  Thank you Tiffany for the awesome popcorn cake :)

Xmas is for feasting right??  We made this awesome crusted steak roulade (aka meat roll!!) for Xmas Eve dinner...YUM!!

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve!!

For Xmas Eve-Eve, we went to the Nutcracker at the National Auditorium, and had a great time. It was the last performance of the season, and the lead ballerina seemed a little unwilling to accept the level of adoration and clapping that the audience was willing to give her. So, she just kept bowing over, and over, and over, and over!! We probably clapped for her for about 45 minutes of the 2 hour show! By the end it was so ridiculous that we couldn't stop laughing and our hands were sore.

Before we left for the ballet, we delivered a kitten to our upstairs neighbor as part of a Christmas surprise! It was very cute, and I wasn't sure if Autumn was going to go through with the our neighbor's plan. Hopefully, his wife liked it!

 No pictures allowed at the ballet, so here's our tree! 

Can't wait to bust into those presents Xmas morning!

The program from the Nutcracker...

Here is the giant Ferrero Roche and Pineda Covalin Xmas Tree in front of the National Auditorium.

It's a little blurry, but decent for an iPhone pic.  Here's the National Auditorium all decked out for Xmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

This evening we dropped by a friend's house for Hanukkah Cocktail Hour, and brought CUPCAKES!!

 #BestTrophyHusbandEver!!

Mmmm....Hanukkah-y!

Thanks Julie for the baking supplies!!

Psst...It Was ME!

So, I told you how I have this awesome new Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook that is full of bizarre yet delicious recipes, right?  Well I decided to make another one this weekend. 

Behold...

Grapefruit Pie!!  

That's right, I successfully kind of baked something...not Eric...ME!  I say "kind of" because the only thing that had to be baked for this was the crust, but it still totally counts.  And it's delicious.

Would You Hold It Against Me?

Earlier this week we saw on the morning news that Britney Spears was coming to Mexico City to give a concert at Foro Sol!  The most amazing part was we were able to get tickets!!  When Lady Gaga came to Mexico City, the tickets sold out in under 5 minutes, and we missed out.  I don't know what the means for The Brit, but for us it was excellent news!

Foro Sol is a huge stadium by the airport that seats 50,000 people.  It was amazing!  That's like 10 Colvilles!!

Here we are anxiously awaiting Britney!

Look!  Look!  She's right there!  In the middle of that huge ball of light!!

We really went!

We got this free mag after the show.  It folds out into a poster that Eric is threatening to hang up somewhere in our apartment.

After the show all 50,000 viewers seemed to want to ride the Metro and needed to buy tickets for it, like us.  We bought a whole fistful of tickets so we wouldn't ever have to wait in a line like that again.  The sheer mass of people in the Metro station was unbelievable, and it took us 2 hours to get home.  Worth it, though, as Britney sure can put on a show!

Fun w/ Photoshop!

Goodnight y'all!

HAIR!

I've been being lazy and letting my hair and beard grow out since the Marine Ball, and when we got back from vacation last week, it was pretty much the hottest topic in my office. I got at least 30 comments like, "You look so different!" "I didn't even recognize you." "Wow, your hair is so long." " What happened? You look so nice!".... Um...as opposed to my usual ugly look!?! What!?

Anyway, I felt like I needed to keep the hair-related attention-getting / inappropriate comments-a-coming next week, so I buzzed it all off this morning. Let the confusion begin as the local employees try to figure out which white guy I am!! muhuhuwauwuahhahaah!

Presto-change-o! Master of disguise!

Goodbye Casa Canciones

With much sadness, we had to leave Casa Canciones this morning.  We had some quality hammock time before parting ways.

Hammock master Eric saying his goodbyes.

Hammock master Autumn demonstrating the very advanced Hammock Burrito technique.

The road to Casa Canciones was exceptionally ridiculous.  There were approximately 10,000 potholes between the highway and the house.  Here are a few of them.

Good bye Mayan Riviera!  We already miss you!!

Snorkeliando Time!

We took two snorkel trips out into Soliman Bay today, and they were both amazing!  It is so cool to just walk out your front door and swim onto a reef.

Here we are bright and early, kayaking out to the far end of the reef.

The sun on the water...so pretty!

We took turns snorkeling in the morning.  Here I am manning the kayak.  Hi!!

The magic of our awesome underwater camera begins...the fish were very active this morning.

Fish and reef...it was so clear!

Top secret fish meeting exposed!

Sea things in the morning...

Eric got very brave (and close) to the coral.  I have had a coral scrape before, so I know to keep a good distance...

Then it was my turn!!

At first I didn't take the camera, so Eric took the opportunity to take some self portraits.  So cute!

Then I discovered fish island, so I had to go get the camera to document this.

Blue fishes...

There were all kinds of cool things growing in the coral...

and anemones with eye ball looking tentacles...

and brains....

and more fish...

and pretty corals!

Hola senor yellow fish!

I didn't get a picture, but I even saw a seahorse swimming around!  Also, our neighbors saw a turtle...so cool!

Eric, snorkel expert.

Autumn, hammock expert.

Goodnight fishes! Thanks for a great day!!