Voyage of the Blonde Treader: Christmas

This was my first Christmas away from home so I figured I'd make I might as well make it as nontraditional as possible and spend it in the southern hemisphere.

There were a few things a bit different for me being in Argentina. For starters, it's summer here, which might be normal for Argentina, but not for us winter Christmasers who bundle up in sweaters with cocoa and coffee to watch Home Alone marathons on a regular basis. Another things is that, like New Years Eve is for us, Christmas Eve is the biggest night of the year down here. So we celebrated by dressing up and having an asado (barbeque) around 10:30 pm and cracking open a bottle of champagne to go watch the fireworks outside. They were going off like crazy all over the city - it was like the 4th of July when I was a kid, before firework control to effect. Some guy in the villas (slums) was even setting them off as well, Facu said "he probably didn't eat tonight, but he's setting off fireworks." Which is pretty amazing and sad at the same time since they probably didn't much to give, yet they're willing to give what they did have to share the celebration of Christ's birth with everyone.

About 12:15 AM on Christmas morning!

After the fireworks finished, we all went back inside to open presents from "Papa Noel" (Santa Claus). Us foreigners were really surprised because we usually open presents after everyone wakes up in the morning, but this was really neat doing it this way because then you can enjoy the rest of the day with your friends and family. So we sat around and some more people came over for dessert and then around 2A.M. we headed out to a Christmas party at a friend's house.

When we got home the next morning (!), I changed into a skirt and tank top, strolled downstairs and got ready for another asado with Facu's dad's family. He is one of 7 kids so they all came over with their kids and it reminded me a lot of Christmas with my family since there were tons of people in the house. They set some tables up outside for lunch and then we all went inside and exchanged more gifts. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming to us confused winter celebraters and it was a lot of fun. And even though I missed my family and friends at home quite a bit I'm really glad I got to experience and appreciate celebrating a little differently this year. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I cannot wait to see what this next year has in store.