Saturday, December 14 will mark the first anniversary of the brutal slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Folks who have urgent pending business at Chapala City Hall should get on it next week. The municipal government’s regular office hours will be put on stand-by for the Christmas holiday, effective Monday, December 23.

While wrapped in modern-day secular glitter, Christmas festivities in the Lake Chapala area still center on long-held customs that put the nativity story in sharp focus. For village children a big feature of the holiday season is taking part in Las Posadas, the neighborhood processions held from December 16 through Christmas Eve as living representations of the Holy Family’s search for lodging in Bethlehem.

Five officials representing different levels of the Fiscalia General del Estado (State Attorney General’s Office, abbreviated FGE) faced a crowd of about 50 curious Lake Chapala Society members attending the November 29 conference on Jalisco’s justice system.

Just as our heads had begun to clear and trembling pets emerged from their hiding places under the bed after Ajijic’s noisy San Andrés fiestas, the daily roar of fireworks has started up again, this time blasting out at the west end of the village where the novenario honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe runs in full fury from December 4 through 12.

The Lake Chapala Society (LCS) recently gave first prize in their yearly Children’s Art Contest to 15-year-old Oscar Orlando Ibarra Lopez. The young artist from San Antonio Tlayacapan will see his artwork grace the cover of the society’s 2014 directory, which is due out in early February of next year.