**(Things are a bit out of order.  Let's go back to last Sunday.)** I hope that you aren't tired of seeing photos of poinsettias, because here are more.  Just as you see marigolds all over the city for the Day of the Dead, during the Christmas season poinsettias are everywhere. As you may remember, Alejandro's sister Sandra wanted to buy a poinsettia for the house.  Last Sunday, after spending a couple of hours at the "kermés", she suggested that we drive to the Paseo de la Reforma where they were having a poinsettia festival.  Tents were set up on both sides of Reforma, an ..read more

As I have written many times in the past, the climate of Mexico City is far from tropical.  The altitude of more than 7000 feet above sea level creates a climate much more temperate than you would expect for its latitude within the tropics.  Mexico City is located within what is called the "tierra fría"... the cold land.  While it might not be considered cold by Ohio standards, it does get rather nippy here in December and January. We have had another cold front came through, and since last weekend we have not seen a lot of sunshine.  Hence, the afternoons have not warmed u ..read more

This afternoon we felt an earthquake here.  The 5.8 quake was centered near the town of Chiautla de Tapia in the southern part of the state of Puebla, about 120 miles away from Mexico City.  Usually, the epicenters are in the states of Oaxaca or Guerrero, but this one was closer to the capital. I was alone in the apartment when I heard the earthquake alarm go off.  Rather than try to go down the three flights of stairs, I went to the corner of the living room which Alejandro says would be the safest spot.  I was in the apartment only once before when the alarm went off ..read more

 Do you have any idea what a "kermés" is?  I didn't until recently.  A "kermés" in Mexico is an outdoor fair that is usually organized by a school, club or church to raise money.  I guess that the best translation to English would be a charity bazaar.  On Sunday morning, Alejandro, his sister Sandra, his nephew Ezra and I went to a "kermés" at a convent in the Mexico City borough of Tlalpan. Alejandro's mother used to volunteer her time to work with a congregation of nuns belonging to the order of the "Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary", and the family still knows some o ..read more

In the past there has been a large, artificial Christmas tree in the fountain in front of the World Trade Center.  It sponsored by the nearby Krispy Kreme shop and was always decorated with giant donuts.  Last week they set up the tree, and yesterday I saw that they had completed decorating it.  It is no longer a Krispy Kreme tree. The decorations are inscribed with both "Feliz Navidad" and "Merry Christmas".  There are also decorations that say in Spanish, "Peace, Union, Harmony, Success, Faith".  At the other end of the fountain there was a rather odd form of de ..read more

I'm not talking about the Caribbean island, but the Jamaica Market, which I have written about numerous times on this blog. On Saturday, after we returned from the Christmas Festival, Alejandro's sister Sandra said that she wanted to buy a poinsettia for the house.  She asked whether we should go to the Poinsettia Fair going on along the Paseo de la Reforma or to Jamaica Market with its enormous selection of flowers.  That Saturday, the Liverpool Department Store was having its Christmas Parade along the Paseo de la Reforma, so the boulevard was going to be jammed with people, even a ..read more

On Saturday morning Alejandro and I went back to the family house.  Leaving the apartment at 7:00 A.M. we were able travel the distance of 11 miles in just a half hour instead of the usual hour of snarled Mexico City weekday traffic.  We had breakfast at the house, and then we went to the Christmas Festival presented by the "secundaria" (junior high school) that Alejandro's nephew Ezra attends. The festival was actually held at another school which has a large auditorium.  It was just a short distance away, but by that time, even on a Saturday morning, traffic was becoming heavy ..read more

 As I wrote in the last post, I still had to put up the elaborate "nacimiento" (Nativity scene) around the tree.  It took a lot of shopping at market stalls and stores to get everything that I needed. Before I started the "nacimiento", the skinny Christmas tree needed more ornaments.  I went to Christmas stalls at the nearest market to me in Colonia del Valle and to the much larger Jamaica Market.  I found small glass ornaments (they are called "esferas" or spheres) that were manufactured in the towns of Chignahuapan, Puebla, and Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, the two places that ..read more

This will be my first Christmas in Mexico City in my new home.  Even though I am still in the process of settling in and organizing the apartment the way I want it, I am decorating the place for the holidays. I began with the front door.   While Alejandro and I were at Sears during the "Buen Fin" shopping weekend, we found a Christmas doormat that wasn't made in China.  At a nearby market, I found some garland to drape around the door.  While I was walking around with Alejandro in his neighborhood, we found a shop selling Christmas figures (made of acrylic, I believe ..read more

 It is December and time to flip the calendar to the last page.  The calendar which I made featuring photos I took at the Cleveland Museum of Art has a work appropriate for the Christmas season. "Virgin and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist" was painted around 1490.  It is attributed to Sandro Botticelli (oops, I misspelled his name on the calendar).  Botticelli was an important painter of the early Italian Renaissance.  Since he often collaborated with students in his workshop, it is not clear whether or not he painted the entire work.  However, ex ..read more