Greetings from bad blogger-land! I can't believe how long it's been since I've logged in here, especially considering I thought maternity leave was going to have me blogging daily. Oh well! The scoop is that we are in our new (to us) apartment! We moved in Saturday, which means that last week was basically all packing and this week is all unpacking.

Let me tell you a thing or two about our new place. It's spacious, so spacious!! Now that we're getting things put away it's so great to have the extra room. There is a "maid's room" where we can store stuff that's not in frequent use, like decorations, etc. Yay! Also, you only have to go up one flight of stairs (or take the elevator) to get to our front door. The parking situation is excellent, meaning there's a space, two actually, and you just drive right in. This is a little convenience I will never again take for granted after practically needing a crowbar to get into our old parking space.

If you ask Puffy, she would say this apartment is loud, bad and very, very scary. Why? Well, we moved in Saturday afternoon, December 11th. The 12th was the feast day for the Virgin of Guadalupe. This may not mean much to people outside Mexico, but here in Mexico, and especially in our new neighborhood, this is a big dang deal. As with most Mexican holidays, the festivities began the night before, i.e. within moments of our arrival. And by festivities, I mean fireworks. I took poor Puffy in the car to Wal-Mart to buy some things, and when I got back to the car, I momentarily forgot she was even there, because she was cowering under the seat, eyes squeezed shut and wondering how she had survived the rocket attack.

In order to understand the festival atmosphere here in Cuajimalpa, it's probably necessary to know a little bit about this area. It's part of Mexico City, on the western edge abutting the state of Mexico. Like many (most?) parts of this city, it used to be its own little town. And it sort of still has that flavor. More and more condos are going up and fancy houses being built, but these exist alongside what one might call "more modest dwellings," and there are plenty of crowing roosters and stray dogs underfoot. Urban planning, not so much. We call it our "pueblito" — not the fanciest, but it's ours and we like it! (Aside: I should mention also that this is one of the safer areas of town, even though you don't see too many cops. Francisco claims it's because evildoers are "dealt with" directly by the neighbors.) So, just like in many small towns, holidays are a big thing. When we last lived around here (two moves ago), I remember Christmas, Holy Week and the feast day of the patron saint of bricklayers were also explosive occasions! So get ready, Puffy!