Christmas Day

For the first time ever, David and I are not home for Christmas. In the past, we have always been with one set of parents or the other. But this year, having just spent a few weeks with each family in August and with an observing run scheduled two days after the holiday, it was clear that we would be in La Serena for Christmas this time around.

Our dear friend Maren from Florida, who just moved to Santiago herself a few months ago, was also planning on Christmas in Chile. We asked her to come up and spend the holidays with us in La Serena. So, although we were sad that we were going to be away from home for the first time on Christmas, we were excited to have our first Christmas house guest! We decided that with Maren in town and our house decorated with the long-sought Christmas Tree, we would make Christmas dinner and invite the few people still who were also planning to be far from home on the holiday to celebrate with us.

Maren arrived at the bus station a few days before Christmas and we had a really great time showing her all around the area. Two days before the holiday, we went to Vicuna, a small mountain town East of La Serena. While there, we perused the Christmas markets and the main town square. We found a vendor selling cactus fruit, Copao and after a refreshingly convincing taste, loaded up on them at 10 for $2. David and I had an idea in mind, that, as you'll see later, worked out perfectly.

On Christmas Eve, we did a fairly spectacular and unexpected thing. After our grocery shopping, we loaded up the car with towels and blankets and headed to the beach. It was a perfect summer day and Maren and I abandoned all reason and went swimming in the Pacific Ocean despite the warnings I'd received that it was freezing cold. It wasn't actually bad at all and the water was just beautiful. I decided that if I had to be away from home for the holidays this was a pretty cool way to do it.

For dinner we planned a fairly simple and traditional meal, turkey (surprisingly hard to find, apparently not the meat of choice for Christmas dinner here), stuffing (David's parents recipe, with lovely chestnuts and homemade sausage), cooked carrots (with butter and a touch of brown sugar), salad, twice baked potatoes, and baked sliced apples.

We can't buy this type of sausage here, so David grinds the pork and seasons it himself

Yum, turkey!

Twice baked potatoes, cooked carrots, a salad, baked apples, and stuffing

Maren was a huge help in the kitchen and we ended up with a lovely meal in no time flat. However, we decided to make an interesting addition to add a touch of Chile to the mix. We took the Copao and made granitas (thanks Margaret, again!) We scooped out the fruit, added a bit of sugar, a lot of pisco, and stuck the mixture in the freezer for a while, stirring every so often to give it a slushy kind of feel. When we were done we loaded it back into the fruit shells, which we'd also frozen. Then we decorated a bit.

Copao granita - a little touch of Chile

Oh yes, we did!

We served the granitas as an apertif when everyone arrived to the house and they were really well received. The rest of dinner was a blast. As with most of my parties, I was too busy playing hostess to take any serious pictures. I think the memory of everyone enjoying Christmas dinner sitting around OUR table in OUR new home is one that probably will stay with me forever anyway.

During the day, we also had the chance to give our parents a call on Skype. Using our video cameras we were able to open gifts with both sets in "person" - which was really a gift in-and-of itself. We had a nice inter-continental toast with David's parents and watched the gift exchanges. We also got to see my brother and his wife Jackie open our present to them. As a huge surprise we'd bought them a Wii and I'd been waiting for weeks to see the looks on their faces. It was totally worth it!

The day ended up as a wonderful melding of friends and family and although I was sad that we definitely would not be getting any snow, I was happy that we managed to feel the warmth of home in Chile.

First Christmas Party in Chile

Every year for the last 6 years, David and I have thrown a massive Christmas party. Generally, we decorate the house, make a nice mix of some of our fancier dishes (including a load of cookies and cakes), and then invite everyone we know to come over and enjoy a night of eating, drinking, and conversation.

For those who know me well (which I'm guessing includes most of the people who would bother reading my blog) this party also doubles as a celebration of my birthday, which is December 17th. People probably think I am a little strange, but the present I give myself every year is this party; it gives me an excuse to make the food I love for the people I love.

Anyway, this year proved to be a little difficult. We still had some boxes lying around and I wasn't at all used to the house yet. On top of that, I found out a bit late that unlike graduate school, most people at the observatory have already left town by mid-December. So by the time I had my act together, a gigantic housewarming party was out.

Instead we decided to invite 15 or so people over to enjoy a quiet evening. I made a lavender cheesecake (which unfortunately did not come out quite right, although this did not stop it from being devoured), a chocolate torte, a load of cookies (made with the help of some friends a few days before), and an apple crumb pie. My friend Emma made fantastic chocolate covered shortbreads and my new friend, Peter, gifted me a beautiful blue bowl from Bulgaria (All are pictured above)!

Jayadev looks over the remains of the bounty

We haven't been able to find puff pastry, a staple in a few of our more fancy appetizers, so we decided to experiment with filo dough. I can already see that I am going to be an addict. I had no idea it was so easy to work with! We made fantastic artichoke & shrimp and mushroom & goat cheese stuffed filo triangles that were gone in minutes. We also made pesto and curry flavored deviled eggs (thanks Margaret!) among other things.

Our neighbors Allison, Ryan, Emma, Jayadev, Susan, Rikki, and Chris and our friends Bryan, Nicole, and Peter as well as some visitors from Australia all joined us. We had a fantastic evening and I felt fairly good about my first fiesta in Chile!

Allison finishes off her cake(s)

Bryan chats with some guests from Australia

O Christmas Tree

We had heard from several people that we should prepare ourselves for the worst with regards to the availability of live Christmas Trees in Chile. Christmas trees just don't grow in this part of the country and since it isn't that common a tradition to have live trees in the home, they are not often shipped from the South. Still we'd heard that with some luck, they could be found.

On the advice of friends, we went into the local home store (think Home Depot) and found a few spruce trees with the roots balled up. My parents had bought ball trees two or three times and I wouldn't have minded going that route if the things hadn't look like the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree's retarded cousins. The best specimens were half dead already and cost $60. Meanwhile we'd seen decent looking fake trees all over La Serena. I honestly wasn't sure what to do. I'd always swore I'd never go fake - but faced with the prospect of either no tree, a dead tree, or a plastic one, I was definitely considering the unthinkable.

Then one day, while driving to meet friends for dinner, we saw a painted sign pointing to a dirt road that said (no translation necessary) "Christmas Trees" . The next Saturday, we decided to take a ride back and check it out. My hopes weren't particularly high and when we arrived at a dead end with no Christmas trees in sight, I was pretty disappointed. However, we decided to walk around a bit. To our surprise we discovered two young boys with saws guarding a small patch of trees for sale. It was a miniature "Cut your own" Christmas Tree Farm.

The trees weren't typical Christmas trees, they reminded me more of pine shrubs, like the ornamental ones found in my parents yard near the back porch. Still we gave them a look over and honestly, liked what we saw. They had the fresh pine scent we were craving, were very healthy, and looked like Christmas Trees, albeit miniature ones. We asked for the price (with a bit of dread, given the $60 price tag of the pathetic ones in the home store) and were surprised to find that they only wanted $10! This was the ticket! David and I picked the best one, the boys cut it down with a few quick strokes (for which we gave them a HUGE tip - I was in a great mood!), we loaded it into the car, and came home triumphant.

That night I set up the tree in our new house and started the task of going through my Christmas ornaments. I was a little scared as to what I might find. Fortunately very few things were broken. This was probably because I had spent half a day last January very very carefully wrapping everything. I knew we were moving, although at the time I didn't know where! Obviously the caution paid off.

So I happily decorated the tree with the best of my ornaments. So Tada! Our first Christmas Tree in Chile.