Feliz Navidad!

The holidays are upon us.  I never thought I'd spend not one, but TWO Christmas in Little Mexico. But, wait, maybe some part of me knew way back when or else why would I have created this...

Yes, that's a Mexican Santa complete with a chili-pepper sombrero, maracas, and a pinata.  There's even a cactus and a guitar on the side that you can't see.  

When I was in my high school art class, we painted Santas for Christmas.  Out of all the different varieties of Santa, I chose the Mexican one.  Who really knows why?

I like to think that this Mexican Santa chose me because he knew that I would one day be living less than a mile from Mexico, and I would return him home one day.

Yes, that must be it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, from the Browns and Papa Noel!  And a Happy New Year to all!

My Christmas Just Got Merrier

Have you ever tried to get your kids' pictures made with Santa?  If you can actually get them to sit with Santa without screaming their heads off and get a decent picture, then you have to pay like $10 for a crappy picture they printed off on their HP printer.  Yeah, thanks, Santa's Elves for ripping me off.  Of course, if I had to work at the North Pole making toys for minimum wage, I'd probably be looking for some ways to make some extra cash, too.

Thankfully, since I now live in Laredo, I get an opportunity to let my kids visit Santa Claus without getting ripped off by his under-paid elves.  And where is this magical place that I can get a free picture with Santa?

THE LIBRARY!

That's right.  The library staff reads my kids stories, does a cute puppet show for them, gives them a meal, AND they get to visit Santa complete with a picture.  All for free.

FREE, I tell you!  It's amazing!  I love the library!

Last year my 1-year-old daughter was slightly afraid of Santa, but my 4-year-old son was TERRIFIED!  He hid behind the bookshelves and cried when Santa came out.  So this year I decided I needed to have a talk with my now 5-year-old son.  It went like this.

Me: "Evan, Santa is about to come out, and I don't want you to be afraid of him like last year.  He's a nice man."
Evan: "You mean last year when I was a little kid?"
Me:  "Are you not a little kid anymore?"
Evan: "Nope."
Me: "Oh, okay then."

And he was fine and very happy to sit in Santa's lap.  See?

I guess I should've had this same talk with Lauren, now 2, but I didn't.  She was excited until she actually saw Santa.  Then she wouldn't look at him and cried into my shoulder.  We did get her to actually look at the camera long enough to get a picture.

Bless her heart.  And, I, being the loving mother that I am, laughed.  A lot.  I love pictures like this.  Really and truly, I do.

So, thanks, Laredo Public Library for being so freakin' awesome!  The kids loved it.  Well, sort of.  

I Discovered a Cool New Park!

Last Friday, my sister-in-law and I were in a conundrum. (I learned that word from Mickey Mouse Club House, believe it or not.)    We run together three times a week.  She usually drives over to our neighborhood, and we take turns watching each other's kids while the other runs.  It's a pretty sweet set-up.  But on Friday she texted me to say that she was without a car.  Sad, sad day.  In my efforts to be a nice person, I offered to go pick her up.  When I got to her apartment, and we were in the van, we both decided that we wanted to go someplace different.  Change things up a bit.  But WHERE?

Way back in March, my kids and I went to the Laredo Kite Festival at North Central Park.  In my faint memories of the actual park that isn't blocked out by the bright colors of kites and free activities for my kids, I remembered a walking trail.  We decided to go there.  Mostly because the only other park I knew of with a walking trail was right by the river, and I didn't want to be watched by Border Patrol while running.

So we went to North Central Park, and it was awesome!  Behold!

I liked this view.  It was right by the new playground that they just built.  Well, I don't know about "just."  It wasn't there last time we were there.

It even has shade!  That is a blessing in Laredo!

Evan wanted me to take his picture. He's Mr. Cool.

Sunglasses, long-sleeves with a hoodie, and shorts.  He's rockin' it!

The walking trail was really great.  The only downside I saw was that at one point on the trail there's an area where water collects, and it kinda smells like sewage.  And for a Super Smeller like me, it wasn't too pleasant.  (Smelling is my super power.)

Oh, and also, some dumb kids had graffiti-ed some areas, but in some cases, graffiti can be funny.  Like this one.

STINKY North Central Park.  *immature giggle*  They said it was stinky...

Overall, though, I really loved this park, and it's trails.  I think we'll be going there more often.

What other parks in Laredo would you recommend we try?