Before Christmas though - we attended the wedding of our friend Chubi - he came and visited us in Aspen for a couple of weeks, winter before last, and had one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to! Imagine all of those photos in Pintrest for weddings and THAT was IT! Absolutely fairy tale scenes! Before the wedding though I had a funny thing to deal with - my dress. I brought a Liz Claiborne simple black cocktail dress to Chile to wear for the wedding. I love this dress. It had some underarm stains on it so I washed it. Um, big mistake. It was dry clean only. It shrunk so much it fit my mother in law and she is a size 4! I am. Not. Even. Close. So, some frantic shopping looking at over priced unattractive junk (think cheapest dresses at Ross or Rainbow kind of stores for about $160. Yes, really.) Pao came to the rescue and I borrowed a dress from her! Whoo hoo!
We were able to go to church on the Sunday before Christmas, which was much needed. I LIKE to gather with other believers who serve Jesus out of love for Him and for others, who know God as their Father, Jesus as Redeemer, and Holy Spirit as Helper! It fills my soul and I enjoy that connection we have. It doesn't matter where it is - it's just a necessary part of me.
For a fun treat, Cecy and Enrique had us come deeper into the city. We went to the Costanera Center in Santiago to visit Santa's Workshop at a department store called Paris. They did a wonderful job of creating a workshop for the kids to walk through and the elves were very good character actors. The boys LOVED it! After the walkthrough in the workshop, we ended up with a moment with Santa to sit on his lap and get a photo - a great momento. Tristan was a little confused about why this Santa only spoke Spanish. If I can figure out how to upload photos from my phone, I will post them. For now, here are some shots from Christmas Eve celebrations:
I shopped for everyone before leaving Colorado so had the nicest lead up to Christmas with my only job to wrap presents and make cookies! I need to do that every year! It is so much nicer than braving the crowds and having the stress of last minute shopping.
On Christmas Eve, we had to get the kids to nap or rest in the evening - it was going to be a late Chilean night. Santa comes here at midnight. We had a late (as usual!) dinner around 10:30 pm with the family at Pao & Coke's house with all the kids, Auntie Mona, Coke's mom, Cecy, Enrique, us and all the kids. Around 11:45 pm, Pao & Cecy took the kids for a walk around the block to see if they could see Santa and his sleigh in the night sky or around the neighborhood. When they returned to the house they caught Santa in the act of leaving the presents!!! The room was covered in gifts!
The boys were so spoiled by Coke & Pao, Cecy & Enrique! They were thrilled to see Santa and overwhelmed at the volume of presents. They opened everything, played, we had cake and coffee and eventually went back to the apartment to go to sleep. However, the kids had a surprise at the apartment: Santa had been there too!!!
Our boys had their stockings from home waiting for them and more gifts to open! The cousins came along and they had gifts there too! That Santa is amazing and very generous.
Christmas Day is pretty mellow in Chile. People sleep very late and recover from the night before.
We visited Enrique's daughter, Andrea, for a round of gifts with his grandchildren. Andrea and her husband have an artisanal jam business! They make interesting jams that are savory and sweet! And homemade Argentinean style dulce de leche.
For tea time, we went to Kiko's grandma's house! Neny! She's super active taking care of everyone and hosted a great tea with almost all of the grandchildren (the ones in Santiago area anyway!) The kids like seeing her and the idea that their dad has his own grandma (they love theirs very, very much!)
It was a lot of fun and very different from our holidays in the U.S. Kiko and I often work on Christmas Eve day and Christmas day at ski school as we usually have private clients during the holidays. We both missed the families we work with! We have some really wonderful client friends we love to ski and ride with and hope they had fun with their temporary instructors this season!
I had brought some candy from home so we could have a few things that were familiar at Christmas. I love Reeses holiday treats but didn't bring any - next time I will! I did bring a Reese's king size for emergency needs but haven't had to break into it yet. There was no shortage of chocolate, and Tanner even says it with his sweet little Spanish accent now! Choco-la-tay!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!
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