By Cailin Acosta
LA MESA, California – Downtown La Mesa got into the holiday spirit with its “9th Annual Holiday in the Village Saturday, Dec. 14. Traffic along La Mesa Boulevard from Spring Street to 4th Street was blocked off so families could stroll from booth to booth and enjoy all the festivities safely.
It was a festive occasion, but unfortunately, I did not find any decorations or events that had a Chanukah theme, so I focused on the Winter excitement. I will be mentioning this to the La Mesa Village Association that our holiday was not represented. Many Jewish residents live in La Mesa.
My 12-year-old twins’ friends performed with the La Mesa Arts Academy elective classes such as “Vocals Ensemble” and “Rock U” band. They both left my husband and I with charged up phones to stroll with their contemporaries. So, it gave us a chance to listen to the other performers and take our time looking at the handmade craft booths.
A new addition to the festivities was a synthetic “Ice” skating rink which was set up in front of the Goodwill Thrift Store. We enjoyed watching the children and adults make their way around the rink and were amazed this did not include any ice. It was plastic vinyl, and you could rent real ice skates to go around the rink.
Even though the sun was out, it was still nice to cozy up to the outside fire pits and warm your hands and feet.
The Walkway of the Stars, which is a pedestrian walkway between the Allison Avenue municipal parking lot and La Mesa Boulevard recently celebrated a revitalization of murals. The ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 10, included a mural, “Grow Love,” by Anna Pearson. There is hope with these eight murals that we can all be better citizens and help by keeping the parks and streets clean, being safe drivers, and looking out for our neighbors.
As our twins met rejoined us after a couple of hours, my daughter and I went into the Goodwill Thrift Store and found a Star of David shaped cake pan that I scored for $2.99. When I go into thrift shops, my first thought is to look for anything Judaica to add to my collection.
Click here to learn more about the La Mesa Village Association.
In the nearby Rolando neighborhood of San Diego, the All-Girls Stem Society conducted on Saturday, Dec. 14 a seminar for 3rd through 8th graders about snowflakes.
Living in San Diego does have its luxuries of not having to worry about that frozen stuff that comes down from the sky. Unless you head up to our local mountains. The chances of seeing snowflakes in our neighborhoods are extremely rare.
At the College Rolando Library, the girls learned that snowflakes are formed in the earth’s atmosphere when water vapor is made into tiny particles which create ice crystals. These crystals form hexagonal prisms and as they fall through the atmosphere, they encounter humidity and temperature changes which cause them to grow and make unique patterns. As they grow and expand it leads to the diverse and unique shapes of each snowflake so they cannot all look the same.
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Cailin Acosta is the assistant editor of the San Diego Jewish World.
Enjoyed reading your article Cailin. One would think that the adults around are educated people. Apparently not , disregarding other religions.
Thank you, Sue. 🙂 I thought surely they would have something as it lands on the same day, and it was titled “Holiday in the Village”, so not just Christmas.