Janai meets the family in Mexico City!

So, early April we took Janai on a one-week trip to Mexico City, where I was born and raised until I was 16 years old. I don't see my family and friends there as often as I wish, but when I visit, it is always so much fun and I wish I could go visit more often. I cherish every moment I spend with them, and I was soooo excited about them meeting Janai and Janai meeting them for the first time.

For those of you familiar with Mexico City, we were actually in the Estado de Mexico, but I dont want to write a geography lesson, so Mexico City is enough location information for our purposes.

In the meantime, while we were in MEX, we hired a contractor to do some home improvement to the house while we were gone. The project included refloating all the walls to make them smooth and repaint... the ENTIRE house. I could not stand the splatter texture and bland wall colors any longer! We decided this was the best time to go on vacation so half the house would be finished and livable by the time we came back. I'll have to post about that later, but redecoration and reorganizing has been one BIG project.

So, back to our trip, yeah?....

The trip was WONDERFUL! I loved seeing and hanging out with everyone. Naturally, when we were about to leave, it felt like it wasn't enough time. Janai loved everyone and everyone loved her! WARNING: Bragging begins here: Janai is a hit almost everywhere we go; she's so talkative, playful and friendly that it's easy for people to fall in love with her; and of course, she loves the attention. End of bragging.

The platter of choice was tamales. We ate tamales EVERY day, and some days, twice in the same day. Adrian probably had more tamales that week than he had his whole life. Of course, we had sopes and huaraches and other things in between, but eating my Tia Raquel's tamales is beyond this world. You would have to taste them to know, but take my word. And my Tia Hermila's tamales our out of this world too. They both make different kinds of tamales, corn leaves vs banana leaves and they are equally delicious in their own right.


Tia Raquel and Tio Fernando hosted a party at their house in our honor, and they hired a Trio to come sing at the party. My parents and aunts/uncles were thrilled because the Trio had an original member of a band that was very popular in their day called Dandys (sp). Afterwards, we danced our hearts away. They served dinner at the beginning of the party and late dinner towards the end of the party. It was great to catch up with Tia Hermila, Araceli (and meet his very cool boyfriend), Claudia and her husband, Sebastian, Elvia, Hector, Paola Sofia, Armando, Maricela, Tio Efren, Roberto and his very nice wife and two kids. Roberto's wife really wants to learn English so was thrilled to hear Adrian and I talk to Janai. Of course, my cousin Lulu, with whom I grew up, and her husband Abel were there too - it was great to see their daughters Abi, who was a toddler the last time I saw her, and Pam who is now married! How time flies! Oh, and my niece Karla, who I mostly remember from she started walking was at the party too with her husband and their baby boy. These young nieces are what make me realize I'm getting old!!! LOL


Adrian was the acclaimed dance partner of all the women at the party. You can easily say they were all waiting their turn to take him out to dance. One of the many things that I love about Adrian is that he loves to dance...doesn't matter what kind of music it is or if he knows how to dance it.

One of the missions I had while I was there was to continue redecorating my Mom's house and start redecorating my Tia Raquel's house. My Mom's house just needs a few more touches to be done, and redecorating the living room and dining room for my Tia R was a success! Everyone is still complementing her home with the changes. I can't take the credit alone... my Dad helped to drill new holes, Adrian helped hold the frames for my Mom, my Tia and myself to decide if we liked it there. Then, Adrian and I refinished a wooden china display to a color that matched better. I'm glad that my Tia allowed me to play with a few ideas in restaging the rooms and that she allowed us to refinish the wooden display because that has set me on a roll to do a lot of projects for the house here in Houston.

I also got to meet Brenda, Marco's significant other, and her Mom and sisters. Brenda is a great gal, and her kids are adorable! Janai was infatuated with her oldest boy, Diego! Janai also clicked really well with the son of one of my childhood friends, Gilberto. Gilberto and his wife Lea have a little boy, Becker, who was so sweet to Janai. Lea showed Janai a song that is possibly the cutest song ever and Janai and I love singing it together. I'll have to share video later.

We also got to hang out with Arita and Herme and Tio Daza, whom have been friends of the family for a looooong time, so they feel like family to us. Well, Arita is family now because, her daughter, Tania is my dear sister in law.

And of course, I can't close without mentioning that it is always so GREAT to catch up with my old best friend, Keren. How I wish we could talk and see each other more frequently. I love her and miss her every day since we moved to the US.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the party: