Feliz Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and one of the unknowns about moving to Mexico was what would become of my beloved ritual of friends, family, turkey and stuffing. Fortunately, the ex-pat community is just as in love with Thanksgiving as I am, so lots of options abound.

Jim and Adriana invited us to join them at Los Senderos for their Thanksgiving celebration with their son Nicholas. Los Senderos is a development in progress, which smartly started with a first class restaurant to attract people to the site. The restaurant was beautiful, and very Napa-esque. It had lots of stone, some cool waterfalls, and an adjacent garden growing some of the vegetables served to the patrons. It was very inviting.

We got there about an hour ahead of time, just to be able to enjoy the grounds for a bit. We found a big beautiful tree to lounge under. Bryce played with his cars, Laurel became a grasshopper trainer, I practiced poi, and Sue just chilled outside and shot some photos. Here's one of Laurel on the grounds:


Laurel chilling at Los Senderos

Jim and Adrianna arrived on schedule, and we made our way to the restaurant patio for dinner. It turns out today was their thirteenth anniversary! Adrianna surprised Jim (and the rest of us) with a really good Mariachi band, who played my new favorites Rancho Grande and Mariachis Locos, as well as several requests from Jim and Adriana. After listening to this band, I now have a much better appreciation of Mariachi music.


Our Mariachis


Jim and Adrianna enjoying their special day

As we were being entertained, our long awaited Thanksgiving dinner arrived, and it was delicious. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans with yams, and some yummy foccacia-style rolls. Another part of my personal tradition is having a second helping, and since Bryce isn't much of a carnivore, I was able to finish his plate as well. Yum!


Our gourmet Thanksgiving dinner

After dinner, the kids played on the expansive grounds while the adults talked. Los Senderos had some bikes available for guests to use, and the three kids went off exploring, checking back in every-so-often to see if we had ordered dessert yet. Finally, we got to choose from pumpkin pie, apple strudel and creme brulee, all of which were tasty.

We had yet another Mexican-style unhurried, long get-together, without the stress of cooking and cleaning of a traditional Thanksgiving. It's just how the holiday should be!