A couple of hundred kids dressed like ghouls, goblins, saints and sages bobbed and weaved their way through the crowd here at Philo's last night looking for treats from all the people seated at the tables with bags of candy.  What a great night!  Alaska Linda won the costume contest.  She made a very convincing witch, scarring the kids half to death.  All in all a great way to start the season.

Achim and Allessandra (The Traveling Band), have been playing Friday nights here at Philo's but starting next week we will be adding Wednesday to our music schedule and they will be playing their fabulous music starting at 8 pm every Wednesday night.  These guys are really really good.  Stop by and check them out. 

Here comes Thanksgiving again.  If you're looking for something cool to do for Thanksgiving try our annual Thanksgiving pot luck dinner.  You bring a dish to serve 8 to 10 people and we furnish the Turkey.  Starts around 4 o'clock with dinner around 5 pm.  Come early and get a good seat.  Lots of great music.  50 peso charge to help pay for the extra help. 

The San Sebastian trip is on for Sunday the 6th of December and returning on Monday the 7th.  San Sebastian is a 400 year old silver mining village, one hour and forty five minutes from Philo's, located in the mountains, at an elevation of 5,000 ft,

For $800 pesos (about  $60 usd), you get a room for the night, a delicious catered dinner, a party with Philo and the Mexican Shuffle Band and a continental breakfast the next day. 

After the dinner and party we all move upstairs to the old bar and just outside the old bar we light a campfire and sing songs and drink Tequila. 

Half the tickets have been sold, so if you are considering going with us, please let me know as soon as possible and I will add you to the list. To check out pictures from our last two trips to San Sebastian, click HERE.

And, once again, Christmas is coming up.  For all of you who are coming back soon, don't forget the kids.  Every year Santa visits Philo's and gives out gifts to the local children.  Stocking stuffers work the best.

Check out pictures of last years Christmas with Santa and the kids by clicking HERE.

News from Kathleen:

We are looking for two new teachers for the Community Class project at Philo's -- one teacher for Beginning Children's English and one teacher for Beginning English for teens and adults. It would be helpful if the teacher can speak some Spanish.

Used eye glasses are still being requested for our give-away program, but we have had some problems with this in the past when large quantities were brought through the Puerto Vallarta airport. In one case, the donor had to pay $100 in duty. To avoid this, we recommend bringing only a few eye glasses. If everyone could bring us 2-6 sets of used glasses, we could still help a lot of people in our community, but this would not be enough to raise alarms with custom officials at the airport.

The Community Network Breakfast, sponsored by the U.S. Consular Agency, will hold its next breakfast on Friday, November 20 at 9 a.m. (PV time) at the La Cruz Marina. This breakfast will feature the Friendship Club of La Cruz, which pays for medical expenses for the needy in the area. Please bring a donation for the local schools, such as crayons, art paper, spiral notebooks, pencils and pens. More details about this breakfast will be in the next Philos' Notes.