Day of the Kings and 2015 Begins

Full Moon; Tranquil San Miguel

Christmas is over and Day of the Kings has passed; friends have returned to the States, while others have arrived.  All the Holiday revelers (mostly chilangos from Mexico City) have gone home or back to work and school, and our sleepy little town--well not really--is back to normal.

It hardly seems possible that it can be 2015. As with the years before, however, we will quickly adjust and soon it will seem the norm.

Susie Packed To Go

Early New Year's day we said goodbye to our good friend, Susie Morgan, who returned to her home base of Boone, NC after spending a month here with us.

We miss Susie, especially our afternoon talks on the terrace, margaritas in hand, watching the sun set over the town.

After we saw her off in her airport van, we walked over to one of our favorite restaurants, Cumpanio, for a great New Year's Day brunch.  This restaurant/bakery serves delicious food and incredibly good baked goods--the croissants are as good as anything you might find in France (at least we think so), and their pies, cakes and cookies are the best in town.

Mart and Bob In Our Apartamento

Mart & Bob, longtime friends, who shared with us our trip to San Miguel last year, have returned.  We are  happy to have them here again; they are great traveling and touring companions and are always interested in exploring new things.

In addition, many evenings, the dominoes come out--and we are keeping a running score to see who is the 2015 champ!

One Set Of The Three Kings

 Christmas doesn't end here in San Miguel and all of Mexico, until the Day of the Kings (January 6).  We anxiously awaited the day, having heard that there was a nice parade and that the city provided gifts for the children.  The parade consisted of several flat bed trucks on which children were dressed as characters in Biblical stories.  Our favorite was "The Sacrifice of Isaac"--a little guy lay prone before a fake fire; all the while waving to the crowd as the truck passed.

We got sidelined by a King's Day celebration at a nearby church, attended by a couple of hundred people from the neighborhood.  It was interesting to watch, especially as the crowd headed by three men dressed as the kings waited outside of the church for the priest to come out and bless everyone with holy water.  Inside worshipers prayed the rosary as each king presented gifts to be placed on the altar.

Perched To See The Kings

Thinking that this was the town celebration we waited for the crowd to exit from the church--only to learn that this was not the official celebration but only a local happening.

The Official Three Kings

During our wait, we entertained ourselves, though, handing out chili lollipops to all of the kids (and an occasional adult) going in and out of the church.  That was fun and we quickly handed out the more than 150 suckers we had brought with us.

One Happy Family

Finally realizing that this was clearly not the official Three Kings Celebration, we decided to head to the Jardin to see what was happening there.  By the time we arrived, much of the action was over but we were still able to see the "official three kings" who were posing for pictures with excited kids and parents.

Meanwhile the Mayor (who, BTW, is very handsome) was distributing toys, giving giant plastic trucks to the boys and plastic baskets filled with plastic food to the little girls.  All the children dutifully lined up to receive their gifts.  Clearly, the boys got the better part of the deal.

We continue to meet and make new friends--that's one of the really nice things about San Miguel.  A few days before the Day of the Kings, we hosted Eddie and Elma at our apartment for dinner and dominoes.  They have a wonderful and interesting story.  Eddie was born in Nueva Leon, Mexico but went to the US when he was 14.  His father had abandoned the family and Eddie, after goat herding for his grandfather, left Mexico to support himself and his family.  He and Elma met picking tomatoes in the fields of the Central Valley of California.  She too was 14 and the daughter of migrant farm workers; when not in school, she and her siblings worked in the fields with their parents.

Eddie and Elma eventually married and raised three daughters, all of whom have graduated from college and have families and successful careers.  Eddie now supervises labor operations on the same large farm where they met 42 years ago; like us, they look forward to coming to San Miguel in the winter months, enjoying all the activities and interesting things going on in town.

We had met them briefly last year, but got to know them a little better this year.  Incidentally, Eddie is a great dominoes player, having learned to play in the "cantinas" when he was a very young boy.  Elma had never played but caught on quickly. Unfortunately for us, they have returned to the States.  Eddie is still working and needed to get back.

There never seems to be a dull time in San Miguel; there is always a concert, play, movie or street concert to sample and enjoy.  Making new friends and acquaintances seems to be so much easier here. We enjoyed the holidays--especially learning about the different Mexican customs and celebrations, but the town really was overrun by tourists during these last couple of weeks, so it was incredibly nice when it returned to normal after the 6th.

It was sad, however, to see the giant Christmas tree in the Jardin dismantled on January 7th and put away for another year.