Mexican Christmas fun!

Are you coming for holidays to Mexico or are you a foreigner who lives here?

Those of us who live here sometimes find we miss our old Christmas traditions and then again sometimes we desire to create some new ones.

Maybe we can create a mix of old and new traditions this year.

Here are some ideas to get the Christmas fun started whether you live in Mexico or are coming for the holidays …

- Whack a piñata. It is good exercise too as real Mexican piñatas are very hard.
- Build a sand castle to represent Santa’s tropical home.
- Throw sand in the air and pretend it is snow.
- Decorate a palm tree.
- Swim in a cenote and pretend its glacial water.
- Go Christmas shopping in shorts and a t-shirt.
- Swim in the ocean with an inflatable reindeer and call out ho ho ho.
- Drink “Abuelita” hot chocolate with mini marshmallows floating in it because the weather is kind of cold. Cream tequila in it is optional.
- Put a turkey in to cook and go for a swim.

Also on Christmas Eve don’t forget to put out a non alcoholic margarita with some chips and salsa for Santa and some banana or mango chips for the reindeer.

What are your ideas?

Enjoy the Adventure!

With great love, Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My ebook: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/

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Our Mexican Christmas

First you put the turkey in the oven then you go to the beach for a swim in the ocean.

Christmas in Mexico for us is a wonderful blend of old and new traditions. We put the tree up after we have gone swimming in the pool in our yard. We still string up lights outside but they are in the palm trees.

I’m going to go for a practice swim right now. I really love a tropical Christmas!

May your Christmas be filled with many wonderful old and new traditions!


Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/.

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/.

A Mexico Holiday - How to be a good house guest

Blend Christmas with high season and it means company will definitely be coming to our house in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Well the truth is I do love company so I am indeed happy - especially when the company knows how to be a great house guest.

How can you be great company for someone who lives in Mexico? Just bring lots of stuff that we still can’t get here. In my case it would be chocolate Oreo cookie crumbs, graham wafer crumbs, Dream Whip, instant puddings, large jars of crunchy peanut butter, and vitamin C caplets (I can only find horse size tablets here). You get the idea, so ask your hosts what they need.

When we still lived in Canada, we visited friend who were living in Thailand. They had a ton of stuff they wanted that they could not get there. We brought it all but did not really understand the pleasure of receiving it until we moved to Mexico.

Also, tell your hosts that you just came to chill and that we do not have to entertain you! Feel free to strike out on your own sometimes. Don’t ask a lot of questions about why they do things this way or anyway here as we don’t know either. Oh and bring a bottle of tequila back to the house with you now and then.

Enjoy your holidays! I know your friends or family that you are visiting will love your visit.

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/.

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/.

After Christmas in Mexico

How do we all avoid a post Christmas let down once all the gifts have been opened, the turkey has been devoured and all that is left is the clean up? Even in Mexico, we can suffer this fate! This year let’s be prepared!

Plan a day at Xel Ha or Xcaret. If you are not in the Riviera Maya, I’m sure that you can find another adventure park or activity. Then again, you could just come here!

Go to the beach.

Plan a day on a catamaran.

Visit other towns or states in Mexico.

Plan an after party with friends and marvel at how well you managed over the holidays.

Plan a trip to somewhere cold just to be different. Book a ticket to somewhere warm again for the next day as you will probably find it too cold.

Start planning next Christmas! It is never too early to avoid the frenzy.

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com

Making a Gingerbread House in Mexico

One might think that this would be a relatively easy process. However in Mexico a builder has to think about the fact that humidity can crumble walls or even that ants could carry it away! I do not want any ants thinking my gingerbread house is a party palace. I want us free to eat it ourselves dust and all after Christmas!

Here is my plan:

- Bake the gingerbread well to ensure strong walls. Of course avoiding any burnt color.

- Cover the preparation area with disposable plastic to avoid leaving any sugar remnants.

- Build the house on a base that then gets set in a pan of water to deter ants. Maybe we should make the house a gingerbread castle and that is the moat!

- And vacuum the kids after assembly.

That should work! And you thought living in the tropics was the easy life!

Okay so maybe it is. See you at the beach. Feliz Navidad!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/

Christmas in Mexico Top 10

Today I’ll share with you my top 10 things to do if you are spending Christmas in Playa del Carmen, Mexico this year.

10) Go to the beach and build Santa’s house out of sand. Paper towel rolls make a great mold for the posts. Don’t forget to add the North Pole sign post. Paper or plastic reindeer are optional, but do add a more realistic look. Skip the candy – too messy with the sand – sand on your tongue is just yucky.

9) Make some pretty red and green margaritas. The green ones are lime and the red ones are strawberry (frozen strawberries of course because we don’t grow strawberries in Mexico!). Drink them while you eat corn chips with a choice of red or green salsa.

8) Put on suntan lotion and go Christmas shopping on 5th Ave. Buy an inflatable pool floaty toy shaped like a palm tree for yourself and towels that say “Playa del Carmen” for everybody else.

7) Rent a kids Christmas movie that you know really well and watch it in Spanish and giggle because the voices are different and sound funny.

6) Take your new palm tree floaty and go for a polar bear swim in the pool – the pools are cold here at Christmas time! Have Abuelita (Spanish for Grandma) brand hot chocolate ready for when you come out. It’s the best - all pre spiced and everything!

5) Decorate a palm tree with twinkle lights and red balls as your Christmas tree.

4) Plan a party and invite mariachis to play the music. This is a good time to serve more red and green margaritas, and your salsa. You can also show off your palm tree.

3) Buy some poinsettias to decorate your place and then after Christmas you can plant them outdoors and they will live!

2) Take a picture of yourself at the beach wearing a Santa hat and send it as a Christmas card to all your friends who live far away. If you want to get creative, take it in front of the Santa house you made out of sand. Very impressive!

1) Last but obviously not least; put tacos out for Santa and chili flavored chips for the reindeer. They look forward to coming to Mexico every year because we have the best snacks!

Merry Christmas to all!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/

Does it really feel like Christmas in Mexico?

Does it ever really feel like Christmas in Mexico? Well not exactly at this moment. You see I originally come from a land of snow at Christmas. Playa del Carmen does not get any snow.

So, I have the decorations up, and the tree up, but still no special Christmas feeling ... hmm, what to do??

I am thinking the following may help ..... paper snowflakes on the windows, rolls of cotton batting laid out across the lawn, the setting up of a live nativity scene in our yard, creating an outdoor fireplace, twinkle lights everywhere, installing air conditioning so that I can turn it up really high, and playing my Christmas carols full blast every minute of everyday until Christmas.

That should help! Does anyone have any pine scent? Wait until my husband gets home!

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit www.LiveYourDreamsCoaching.com