Guagolota and Pipilitos

Guagolota: Spanish name for a female turkey.

Pipillito: Spanish name for a baby turkey. 

When I found out we were going to Mexico for Christmas 

I wanted to ask my family down in Mexico to buy some type of baby animal for my kids, 

they love baby animals. 

But I got all busy preparing for the trip that I forgot to ask.

 Then when we got there, among the many news my Mom told me was that, 

her guagolota was waiting for her eggs to hatch! 

I asked her when the pipillitos were going to hatch, but she had no clue. 

But  the next day we got there, I heard them chirping! 

Mom quickly came to see if the pipilitos were hatched, and they were! 

My kids were thrilled to see and hold baby turkeys! 

Five facts about turkeys.

1. Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States!
2. A female turkey lays 4 to 18 eggs.
3. Males take no role in the care of young turkeys
4. Males turkey gather in clearings to perform courtships display, they puff up their body feathers, flare their tails into a vertical fan and strut slowly while giving a characteristic gobbling call. 
5. Only males gobble. They gobble with a distinctive sound that can be heard a mile away!

Linking to Random 5 Friday and Saturday's Critters

Merry Christmas!

The holidays are here! My single mother live has gotten really busy.
I even forgot about this blog. Not good, not good!

So if I don't post anything from now to the end of Christmas, 

I want to wish you a merry, merry, Christmas!

This is my son's school band performing for the Christmas concert. 

He is somewhere in there playing the saxophone. 

I'm very proud of my musician!

Ding Dong!

Finally the time has come that I can scream sing Christmas songs without people looking at me weird! 

I get funny looks when I blast this type of music in July :)

... Sing we now of Christmas, 

Noel sing we here,

(Noel sing we here)

Sing our grateful praises,

To the babe so dear...

When screaming you lungs singing to Jesus you don't have to worry about having a great voice, He loves to hear you not regardless of  how you sound.

TREE LIGHTING

It was the Tree Lighting at The Shadow Lake Town Center.

 We got about three jackets on us and went out there into the cold, it was about 31 degrees!! 

 There was not just the Tree Lighting event, The Peppermint Elves were performing too. 

The freezing temperatures were perfect for hot chocolate. The only place to get hot chocolate at that mall is at Chocolaterie Stam, so there we walked. Of course there was a long line!
But we didn't mind, because it was warm inside. Kids even started to play cards.
Then the chocolate was ready, just in time to go catch the parade!

It was so crowded and we didn't get to see much, but my kids are older so no crying kids for me.

Then we manage to get all the way to the front!

 Here is LaVista South Titan Marching Band.

This is it! Fireworks and sparkly hats made it clear that Christmas was here. 

. 

They counted down from 10 to 0 and lights went on! So pretty!

This guy is too serious, I will not take the chance to cross the line and see what's in those present boxes.

Santa was there too. All of these kids below were waiting to have their picture taken with him. 

I had to take this picture with the flag, reminds me of the ones that won't be able to spend time with their love ones this Christmas, because of their duty to the country. I hope they get lots of cookies in the mail!

Gingerbread House Recipe

I hope the Thanksgiving Turkey doesn't get mad at me! 

But my Zumba instructor pointed out that this year the Christmas season  is going to be shorter 

than the previous years. Thanksgiving is at the very end of November. 

She even made us do Zumba with a Christmas song!

At first I was resisting it, because I didn't want to lose the Thanksgiving spirit. 

But now that I think about it, Christmas always sneaks in and out of me pretty much every year 

and the next time I take another glance at the calender  it's already Valentines Day! 

I'll just go with what the  Zumba lady said and I will start thinking Christmas thoughts now.

Some years ago the kids and I made a Gingerbread House. But by the time we got all the ingredients
and got going with the process, it was already December 25th!
Then the painstaking Gingerbread house was pushed somewhere in the back 

because it was time to celebrate New Years and Valentines!

I want to make a Gingerbread House again this year.
 And I will not wait the the last minute this time, I will start getting ready now.

I will be using this recipe here. It also comes in  PDF version. 

This is the same recipe we used last time, I hope we get to enjoy the making of it this time.  

Last time was a little challenging, since it was our first time constructing a Gingerbread House and had no idea if all the hard work was going to end up well.