Alejandro, the mechanic that has been working on our boat, invited us to come to his house for Christmas dinner. "We'll pick you up at 10 PM". Dinner would be at Midnight. We arrived at his brother's house where there was a sumptuous feast...camarones en mole, pollo asada, pesca puttanesca, everything was delicious. Bruce played some Mexican music on his accordeon and the boys played in the street with the Mexican kids, lighting firecrackers. Right around Midnight the real fireworks started-- every house in the neighborhood brought out their guns and started firing into the air, some of it on full automatic. The kids were called into the house so they wouldn't be hit by falling bullets.

After dinner we went to the house of another of Alejandro's brothers, where there was another party going on, with music and dancing. After that we went to another house, with more music and dancing. Alejandro said that we would be visiting seven houses that evening. We were on house number 2 and it was already after 3 a.m.!

We were at house number three at 4 a.m., and the boys were very tired, so we went back home to get some shut-eye.

It was a memorable experience.