Christmas has come and gone.  We had a wonderful Christmas Day.  We invited a single guy from California who is renting the 2 bedroom house on our property and a single woman artist from Australia who just rented the 3 bedroom house on the property. Melanie, our neighbor across the street, also joined us. I had decided to cook baked chicken instead of turkey as turkey is so dry and we already had it for Thanksgiving.  Most of the chickens we see here are small in size so I asked the local butcher we use to try and get me two good size whole chickens.  Bob went to pick them up and he brought back two huge chickens in the bag!  Probably 20 lbs. worth! I could hardly fit them in the large roasting pan I had! we all laughed and laughed about the chickens.  We are still eating baked chicken.



 

 

 

After eating at 1:00 p.m., we went to a Christmas party at a friend's house down the street.  We met 12 new couples there  and had Spanish Paella, salad, appetizers and dessert.  We were more than full!  It was a good day.

 

We will be moving to the Racquet Club the last week of January.  We knew we would probably be  moving after Pat and Ray left the end of January.  We were sharing the rent and did not want to pay double.  We knew that our main priority was to have a safe place with a view of the lake and mountains.  We spend most of our time outside.  Eating outside, walking and relaxing in our patio lounge chairs so we are excited with the casita we found.  It is located in San Juan Cosala, about 7 minutes from where we are currently living.  It has 2 bedrooms with "American mattresses".  Mexican beds are very hard in comparison. It has a large yard, with an outdoor bar, grill and hot tub.  You can see a beautiful view of the lake and mountains from the left to the right from our terrace.  The woman who owns the house is German and lived in Washington, DC for a long time.  The rent of $450 will includes all utilities, cable TV, internet, gardener, maid once a week and a garage to park our car in.  It is in a gated community with it's own security police that patrol the area day and night. We will also have access to the two pools and a dog park.  There are 8 tennis courts but forget the tennis courts - if I wasn't good at tennis at 30, I'm sure I won't be now!  Our landlord said we could even bring our stuff over and move in the last week of January even though we start paying rent in February.  We feel blessed to have found such a nice place for so little rent.

 

 

This is the view from the top of the steps (about 20) to our casita below.

 

Pictures of our yard.

 

 

 

The hot tub is in the middle by the wall. It was so cloudy that day you could not see the lake or mountains.

 

 

 

Outside terrace.

 

This bedroom has shelves and 3 closets on the right hand side with a window view of the lake. 

Living room

Living room

Kitchen with bar

Kitchen with large window with a view of the lake and mountains.

 

 

The refrigerator is small.  We buy for each week anyway...shouldn't be a problem.

Bathroom

 

 

2nd Bedroom

With a TV and sliding glass doors and view of the lake and mountains.

This sliding glass door is in the living room so you can see the lake and mountains. We think flower will like her new home as the landlord has an English sheepdog to play with.