New Year's in Mexico City!

Jean Paul and I went to Mexico City last week to spend New Year's with his dad (Vic)!  We'd gone to visit before, but always just for Saturday and Sunday.  This time we went December 30 - January 3, almost a week!  It was a relaxing time, and we were also able to be tourists for a while, as well as spend New Year's Eve with Vic's family!

First stop was the Chapultapec Zoo!

I love giraffes!

JP and Vic at the Zoo

New Year's Eve at Grandma Conchita's house!

There were probably about 30 people in total - aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousin's kids (JP and I are the youngest of the cousins)  Most of the relatives were people we'd never met before, or who JP hadn't seen since he was 5!

Here's JP with Aunt Mari (in purple), Uncle Lorenzo (the older gentleman), three cousins and two kids!  We'd met Mari and Loren before, but this was the first time meeting the cousins!

It was great to be considered part of the family even though most relatives hadn't seen JP for almost 25 years!  The little kids even called us Uncle Paul and Aunt Jessi! 

 Here's us with Vic and Grandma!

We rung in the new year in the traditional way - counting down to midnight, then eating a green grape for each of the 12 clock chimes, and singing the National Anthem after.  Jean Paul and cousin Carlos did a piñata for the kids... a piñata filled with manderin oranges, caña (sugar cane?), and jicama!  Now THAT is traditional!

On New Year's Day we headed to a part of Mexico City called Coyoacan.  It's almost like a small town fit into the big City!  But it was PACKED on January 1st - not much is open on New Year's and everyone gets bored, so going to Coyoacan is apparently quite the thing to do!

We ate our very favorite fried quesadillas in the food market!  Uncooked tortillas are filled with cheese and your choice of: shredded chicken, mushrooms, sausage, shredded beef, mashed potatoes, chile poblano, ground beef, or any variety of other foods, including three that are very strange for people in the United States - cooked cactus leaf, the orange flower the grows on the end of zucchini, and CORN SMUT.  Yes, you read correctly - corn smut - the fungus that grows between the husk and the corn on the cob!.  It's actually really good!  Then the uncooked tortilla with it's filling goes into the oil to cook to perfection!  Top it off with hot salsa and a fruit punch pop, and it's EXCELLENT!

Here's JP and Vic at the food market!

And in one of the four HUGE malls that we went to, we found something that's not quite so unusual for people in the States but IS for us:

A Dairy Queen Blizzard!  YUM!

We had a great time in Mexico City, and hope to be going back more frequently, even if just for a weekend, to visit!