Cuarta semana de adviento

The fourth light of advent is the light of you and I
Light of love of light
To give and understand

Now that we are so close to Christmas time, we get busier and busier with git making, preparing everything for the "big day" and making sure that we spend time with those we love dearly.
This year, although we are not close to our families, we have made sure that we spend time with those who have been so welcoming and loving towards us here in Mexico.   We are starting to feel like we have our clan, our "family" away from home here.
We invited them to a "colombian Posada" at our house and we all had a great time!

The kids loved spending time together, playing in the sandbox, swinging, cuddling with the bunnies, playing catch, etc...

Meanwhile, the mamis were busy making tamales...we all loved the experience of getting our hands in the masa and shaping them.  Now I feel more confident in how to make them and for sure will be doing it again in the future!!

When the tamales were done, then we set up the gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate.  They teamed up to decorate three houses and they all turned out beautiful!
Lots of fun for all of them big and little.

When it got dark, we started with the traditional "mexican posada"  we gathered a group to go inside the house and the rest of us stayed outside, with a candle in our hands, singing the beautiful mexican posada songs.  We went around the yard a couple of times and pretended to be knocking at different houses until at the end, they let us in and we came in to sit in front of the "pesebre" (nativity scene) to start the traditional colombian "novena".  We prayed and sang together, some songs from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and even "jingle bells".
Our hearts were filled with joy!!

After so much singing, we were hungry and thank God, the tamales were ready to eat and of course...delicious!!!

Then, with our tummies happy and full, we sat around the
bonfire and relaxed while the kids played around us.
The weather was perfect...on the cool side, but sitting by the fire made it ideal!  The night sky was incredible!!  Lots of stars and clear...not very common for Mexico City, we felt blessed!

Then at the end, we did a pinata for the kids, which is something very traditional in the mexican posadas.  The pinata was filled with fruits: tejocotes, pieces of sugar cane, tangerines, tiny apples and nuts.