Christmas in Mexico

(Disclaimer: Today Old Crow is dressed as Mario.  He created this costume for himself after breakfast.)

Old Crow is showing Daddy where we will be heading today.  They discussed the best ways of travel to get there.

Today began our journey to Mexico.  We took our passport and suitcase and went through "customs."  :)   Old Crow was allowed to enter Mexico, and we headed straight for the nearest Poinsettia bush.  Some can grow up to 12 feet high!  

We read The Legend of the Poinsettia and learned about Mexico's Christmas flower...

la Flor de Nochebuena...the Flower of the Holy Night.  This story is so sweet and special.  Great read!  We bought a Poinsettia to decorate our room and then we created our own Poinsettia craft.  

First, Old Crow traced 3 green leaves and 6 red petals.

Then he cut them all out.

Then he glued them together and added gold glitter in the center.  Now he has his own Flower of the Holy Night.  

While he was tracing and cutting them out, I told him how to say Merry Christmas in Spanish...Feliz Navidad.  We watched a youtube video of this well-known song.  And we have watched/listened to it a few more times. ;)

We also read The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie DePaola.  We learned that in Mexico it is a 400 year old tradition to reenact the journey of Mary and Joseph as they searched for lodging.  Posada is Spanish for lodging.  It is a celebration where the people search and search for entrance and are refused until they finally reach the stable and are let in.  After reading the story, Old Crow and I reenacted this celebration and pretended to take part in Las Posadas.  He also colored a picture of this tradition.

We learned that Christmas in Mexico focuses on the birth of Christ...not much emphasis is placed on Santa.  Children in Mexico receive gifts on January 6th from the Three Wise Men.  On Christmas Day, children are given a pinata, and they take turns until they break it open and candy falls out.  So we hung a pinata in our garage and gave it a try.  :)

We each had our turn with the bat until it busted and candy began falling out.  Memphis Belle wanted to sit on the side and just watch with her blankie.

  

Candy finally spilled out and everyone was on a mad dash to grab as much as possible.

Bonnie even grabbed up a Starburst and began chewing before we could stop her.  I think she chewed and chewed on that thing for 10 minutes.

After all the excitement with the candy, we headed back inside where Old Crow recapped his day in Mexico by filling out his notebooking page.  All of the student sheets for different countries can be found at Living Life Intentionally.

And that brings our day in Mexico to an end.  Tomorrow we depart for Brazil.

Feliz Navidad,

Jenny