Christmas this year for us in Mexico

As many North Americans we are used to Christmas over the years surrounded by family and friends to whom we share gifts after much searching for the perfect gift for each person often at great expense.

Well this year, being far away from our children, our son in Japan and our daughter in San Francisco we had a very different Christmas. Oh, yes there was the usual round of afternoon parties, one after the other at different friends’ homes where we enjoyed visiting with new and old friends and savouring delicacies.

Here begins the real difference.
Being in real estate over the year gave us the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. We like to thank those who have made our year rewarding personally and financially; our buyers and sellers.

We like to give a bit of ourselves, so we made baskets filled with a few of our favourite things. The baskets cost us little to prepare financially. What they did cost was only time and the fun creating them.

The search for appropriate sized baskets took us to Talequepaque always a fun spot to shop, especially in the Christmas Season. We paired up with one of our new clients and all had a great day. Linda also found vanilla beans there (which can be elusive)– they were used in her “Drunken Prunes” recipe. Small jams jars were collected over the year for this recipe, the lids topped with home made labels. They were used as hostess gifts over the season.

Linda found a “Friendship Soup” recipe on one of her favourite web sites and set about collecting 1 quart jars from “Classico” spaghetti sauce. We even bought a few extra, which we emptied into other jars, as they are perfect for the job! The soup mix makes 16 servings and has 7 variations. We printed recipe cards for one of the variations – “Thai Shrimp Soup”. Home made “Gourmet Spice Rubs”, Linda’s Mom’s shortbread recipe cookies, small liquors gathered over the year at different consumer shows, round out the contents of the baskets.

Nothing fancy, just “A few of our Favourite Things”. Wrapping the baskets in green cellophane decorated with golden ribbon and a personal tag finished the project and we were off Christmas week delivering them to our new friends. This is fun and gives us another chance to get together and see if all is well.

If you would like the soup recipe give us a call or ask us on our website. All the best of 2010 to each and every one of you.

Sincerely, Linda and Don

Linda Wright is a real agent working out of the office of The Hernandez Realty Group, Jalisco, Mexico.
She works along side her husband Don Wright of 40 years who is her partner in real estate. They live in Ajijic, having owned their home here since 1996 and have successfully serviced the real estate industry here for 8 years.
Don and Linda have worked as a team since their marriage, in high tech industries and marketing and as proud parents of Leigh Ann and Douglas.
They have traveled all of Europe, most of the Caribbean, parts of South America,
plus much of the USA. They lived and worked in many parts of Canada and now make their home in Ajijic because of the many obvious benefits.
Linda loves to do market research and has a life long curiosity. She invites you along for the discovery….