Image by pellis via Flickr

We ended up with a holiday worthy of 'A Christmas Story'.

Christmas Eve, I'm expected my husband's family to show up, as they have every year for the last 5, with all the food - my mother in law cooks every thing, and I typically make a side dish or two.

Around 6pm, i ask my husband who all is coming - and he casually replies 'Oh, didn't I tell you? Everyone is going over to my aunt's for Xmas eve, because she's sick and can't get out' .

For some reason, it had never been mentioned, although I'd been asking for 3 weeks what the plans were for Xmas eve.

Well, we had company in the house, backpackers from Venezuela and Ecuador, that we had invited to stay for Xmas with us instead of going on to Bolivia on the 23rd as they'd planned, so it would have been bad form for us to slide off to someone else's house. So we rushed off to Wong and got a pre-cooked turkey part, a couple boxes of salads and cookies, and what not.

Unbeknownst to me, the Venezuelan had also gone off shopping, and came home with enough food to feed a small army - lechon, more salads, more what not.

I started cooking scalloped potatoes (I had to have one favorite side dish of my own), and at about 10 pm (about the time I'm inviting people over - sadly, no one showed :() my husband says, 'I'll be back in a few minutes, I'm going to run to my aunt's house and say Merry Xmas to everyone - no more than half an hour. I looked at him and said... 'Do NOT leave me all alone on Xmas eve.'

At 10 minutes to midnight (!!!) I'm calling my husband on the cellphone - 'Where the heck are you?? it's almost time to eat?? He walked in at midnight, calmly mentioning 'I'm not really hungry, I already ate over there'.

I punched him in the arm. :oops:

The guests had gotten tired and gone to bed, but the fireworks woke them up.

Well, the fireworks and our dogs, who went absolutely berserk when the fireworks started up.

So - the food turned out being delicious, and we all ate until we were stuffed, then talked for a while, drank a bunch of wine, and finally fell into bed around 3am.

Hope your Christmas was as exciting as mine!!

What Are You Eating For Christmas?

Image via Wikipedia

Christmas in Peru takes place on Christmas Eve. My mother in law is doing the turkey, and most of the rest of the food. I'm going to make a couple casseroles full of scalloped potatoes - if I'm lucky enough to find cheddar cheese in the market, I'll make that au gratin. I think I might make a pot of green beans too - There never seem to be enough vegetables to make me happy.

Everyone will start coming over around 10 or 11 pm, and we'll listen to music, talk or watch a movie. Cartoon Network is showing all Christmas specials, so maybe I'll get lucky and there will be a Rudolph or Frosty - Or a Charlie Brown Christmas!

At midnight, all around us we'll hear fireworks and firecrackers shooting off. They aren't supposed to be permitted anymore, yet everyone still does it.

Then, we'll all come inside and eat. Turkey, potatoes, salad, zarsa, and of course at the end, paneton and hot chocolate.

After the food, we'll sit around and talk some more - if anyone has gifts to open, this is when we'll do it.

And then, probably no early than 2 or 3 am, everyone will go home. Anyone who doesn't have transportation will spend the night.

Tomorrow, Christmas Day, isn't much different from any other day - a lot of stores and restaurants will be open as usual. Hopefully, I can go to the black market and get some deals on 'filler' toys for the boys. David is getting a camping trip, Franco is getting some Hot Wheels, and they're both getting a telescope to share. But I want to get some smaller, less expensive toys for filler - and for their stockings - things like little green army men, a deck of cards, a checker's set... things I can get for less than 10 soles. Because when you're a kid at Christmas, no matter what anyone else says, quantity DOES count!

So - to all my readers (all 25 of you!) I wish you the most joyous of holiday seasons, what ever holiday you may celebrate. And I'll see you later in the week!

What a great Christmas Day

Image via Wikipedia

Probably the best since I was a kid myself.

We had Peruvian style Christmas, which means roast turkey and fixin's at midnight - fairly simple this year, roasted potatoes and ensalada rusa. Of course, in true Peruvian fashion, we also had some thinly sliced red onion to go with it.

Afterwards, we drank hot chocolate and watched TV while the kids opened presents. The radio-control cars were a big hit with everyone, as was walking down to the end of the street and lighting some firecrackers. We finally got to bed around 3am, after going through a bit of 'some assembly required'.

This morning, we woke up and had paneton and hot chocolate for breakfast - around 11am. The boys woke up at 7 (!!!!) eager to play with their new toys again. Paneton (also spelled panettone) is a bread that originated in Italy. It's a sweet bread, the good one's are moist, that has dried fruit and raisins - like fruit cake. Most everyone picks out the fruit, of course, but the bread itself is awesome.


After we relaxed and got fully awake, we got dressed and everything together to go to the park. We bought a rotisserie chicken with fried potatoes, some ceviche (a Peruvian staple I'll discuss some other time) and some snacks and had a lovely picnic in a park that was once an olive orchard. Huge, old olive trees in rows (in fruit!!), a lovely fountain and kids with new toys made it the perfect place to be today. The weather was perfect, as Christmas here always seems to be, and it was just amazing, laying in the shade under the trees.

The olive trees, as I said, were heavily laden with fruit, and the ground was covered. We laid our blanket down, and it wasn't long before olive oil started seeping through! It smelled so good. Unfortunately, all the branches low enough to reach had been picked clean. The doves and pigeons seemed to have made pretty quick work of all that hit the ground. I would have loved to have been able to get a couple dozen of those olives to take home and use!

We stayed at the park for about 3 hours, until the sun went down enough that it started to feel a little cool. None of us wanted the day to be over though, and we walked slowly through the side streets, looking at the lovely old houses, and daydreaming about one day being able to buy one.

I hope everyone had a Christmas as perfect as ours, filled with peace and love.