.. Dia De los Muertos: A day of remembrance..

Dia De Los Muertos also known as Day Of The Dead, is a Mexican tradition where families create altars in remembrance of loved ones that are no longer with us. Altars that are decorated with favorites items, foods and the loved one(s) picture.

Now a mom, This is one tradition that I absolutely love teaching Frida about, her curiosity and intrigue about it is something I love to see. When we are getting ready to build our altar, I tell her stories about loved ones she sadly did not meet but knows of due to this beautiful custom, she loves to help in getting the items we will be placing on the altar. 

I remember when Frida first asked my about Why we celebrate Dia De Los Muertos? 

It caught me off guard and honestly I was a little confused, how do I explain DEATH to her, thats even though it is a natural part of life, it is still something we tend to shy away from the subject.
Before I could answer her she told me " Mommy, we celebrate Dia De Los Muertos to remember our family that we love so much!" 

I answered her "Yes, we love our Family and even though they are no longer with us, we celebrate our love for them."

Every year as soon as we start getting ready to create our altar, Frida loves to help in getting things prepared, we go buy favorite food items, flowers and other things we will place in the altar. 

While we create the altar we play music each one of our loved ones enjoyed listening to, share stories of our loved ones and creating new memories with each other. 

" The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."

Dia de los Muertos is special to myself and has become special to Frida, we will keep setting up our altar every October 31-Nov.2. We will remember our loved ones with much love and understand that even though there presence is no longer with us their love will carry on.

" When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure."

.. Elena of Avalor, Inspires our Christmas Decor!! ..

When I tell someone that in my house we love to decorate during holidays, the word love is a major understatement!! We absolutely love holiday decor, and Christmas is definitely on the top of the list! 

My husband & I love to show our little one not only the American traditions but those that are celebrated in Mexico. We show her videos and/or pictures of some traditions that are celebrated and we incorporate them in our household. 

This year we had extra help in showing her some of those traditions, help that came in the name of, Elena! 

Elena Of Avalor, is a thoughtful, compassionate and adventurous princess who with the help of family and friends learns new things while she's helping someone in need or just being her adventurous self. Princess Elena's Kingdom is inspired by Latin America and it is most certainly seen in the kingdom's vivid colors, Elena's beautiful dramatic dress as well as events that take place in her palace or in the kingdom with an extra latin flair.

As we cut our choices down for what our "theme" would be for christmas decor, we were struck by an idea (An idea given to us by our 3yr old) Why not have an Elena of Avalor inspired color sway for our front door.
With the help of our eager 3yr old, we choose Gold & red as the main colors, we set out to look for the perfect decor but weren't lucky because nothing really caught our eye.
So what did we do? We DIY our own decor what we turned out with was this:

Frida loved the Elena of Avalor inspired color sway for our door!

Elena Of Avalor: Feliz Navidad, A royal Christmas. (Artwork from book)

Frida hiding behind her copy of Elena of Avalor: Ready to Rule, DVD.

With some of the leftover ribbon Frida wanted to give her snowman ornament a glitzy & fancy attire like Elena.

We used the bold colors red & gold which Princess Elena gracefully wears a beautiful Navidad gown (pictured above) with these vibrant colors. 

We found metallic gold wrapping paper, a red ribbon with gold trim and and red ribbon to use for our decor. Wrapping our door with the paper, and then carefully placing the ribbon as one would do so when wrapping a gift we were left with the task of making the giant bow with our shiny red ribbon, after many tries we finally had the perfect bow & we placed it on to finalize our door!

After our decor was done we proceeded with another great tradition making some tamales!!! Tamales are a must during the holiday season! 

Frida helping her Grandma  make some delicious Tamales!!

We love our holiday traditions while listening to seasonal music, wether its Feliz Navidad or Santa Claus is coming to town we love sharing traditions with our little one. 

So this holiday season share all your memories, traditions or simply start new ones with your family, those are the memories that all of you will remember. Make sure to get a copy Of Elena of Avalor, Ready to Rule DVD as well! 

.. Hello October! ..

.. Hola Octubre!!! ..


October is by far one of our favorite months here at my house because it officially brings in the fall feel! Not only ado we love the weather but the holiday & traditions that we begin to celebrate in the months coming.

Join us as our over decorating (LOL) & celebrating for this magical time begins!!