Kathy & Eric's travels: Christmas 2016 in Mazatlan and Christmas 2015 in Terrace

It’s been a few days since Christmas and now that I’m not so nostalgic about it ….it’s time to reflect.

Those of you who know us and read my blog know that there were no blog postings last year except one at Christmas as we didn’t travel due to health issues.

It’s a bit of tradition in our family to cut down our own Christmas tree. When our girls were at home we would just tromp out into the bush that surrounds our house and cut one down. Here you see Lauren (our daughter Erika’s niece) our younger daughter Erika and her daughter Abby. We were at a local Christmas tree farm where you can cut any size or variety of tree that you want.

Erika and husband Wade have a big living room so….she cut down a big tree.

We had some lovely cold, crisp snowy weather last winter and it made the front yard look beautiful.

Our little house on the farm looking like a Christmas postcard.

See the 5th wheel tucked under one of Eric’s large buildings. I’ll bet it wishes it was somewhere warm!

Not to be left out….this is our other Terrace granddaughter Holly on Christmas day 2015. She was home from university for the Christmas holidays.

In April of this year I flew to Pittsburgh as did daughter Erika and her daughters Abby and Holly to visit with our older daughter Krista her husband Jeff and their children Shane and Ava. This is a trip that I didn’t blog ….and probably should. Here we are just getting ready to leave Pittsburgh and travel to Lexington, Kentucky for the Rolex three day event horseshow. It was a great trip and a rare opportunity for us to visit together.

Now here we are this year right back where we should be in the winter. That’s Eric going in for a swim.

Looking north up the beach towards the Riu Hotel.

Looking south.

It was a bit rough this day and I let Eric tackle the waves without me.

Look at this beautiful bougainvillea and you can see by the palm trees how windy it is.

And now for Christmas 2016 in Mazatlan. This is Christmas morning and things were being set up for the day’s dinner. There was to be around 57 of us and this included park owner Felipe and his family as well as park workers Raphel and his family and the other park worker Genaro who came on his own.

I was a bit late coming up front and Sandi, Jeannette and Frank had already had a good start setting up.

We needed a large table for the food and tables for our guests. Felipe provided four turkeys which Sandi, Cathy, Robyn and Jeannette cooked and the rest of us provided vegetables, salads, desserts etc.

We gathered up front with our food at 4pm which is a bit early for home but here it gets dark early and cools off by 5:30 so we needed to get an early start. The weather has cooled down lately and it is very windy. At least that kept the biting bugs away!

Most of the food has arrived and is waiting to be uncovered.

The crowd is gathered and seated and having a drink before dinner.

Everyone looks very festive and happy to be here.

John chats to Reg.

Eddie chats to Eddy!

Bill, Rocky and Nancy with Dennis standing behind.

Dennis and his wife Marilyn have left RVing behind and are now staying in a condo close by. We are happy to have them join us along with Bets and Boomer who are also now in a condo.

This is Roger, John’s twin brother and ….

his wife Robyn. This is Roger and Robyn’s first year RVing as they used to stay in a condo close by and they are both enjoying the RV experience. Really nice people and they are parked close by out at the back of the park.

This is Raphael’s youngest daughter, Regina (in Spanish Rayheena) who is 18 months old. She is a daddy’s girl who wants to be in her Papa’s arms. She was very uncertain about all the people smiling at her!

This is Raphael’s family of woman! Farther back you see Felipe and his wife and daughter Elizabeth. Son Felipe Jr. is here as well but son Ulysses had to work at Felipe’s hotel since the staff was off for Christmas.

Bill was asked to say grace.

Our good friends Sandi and Frank.

Marion and Fred are sitting with Reg and Pat.

This is Bets. She and husband Boomer are renting at the same condo complex as Dennis and Marilyn. Bets misses the RV park and we miss her as well. Times are changing and many people are exploring new ways of travelling to Mazatlan for the winter. It is all a bit of a dance to find what works.

Raphael chats to Diane while his younger daughter looks on. Raphael has two older daughters and two younger ones. Life is hard here in Mexico and he works hard to support his family. He is a very nice man and we are happy to have him here. Raphael works during the day and Genaro is here to watch over us at night.

Felipe is chatting to Eric while Sid and Candy listen. We didn’t know Sid and Cherry who are from Calgary but they were very pleasant dinner companions. They have been travelling to Mexico for a very long time.