Into The Heart of Argentina

What? You can’t see the connection between peacock feathers, peaches and surviving Christmas away from family?

Thursday was a good day. An excellent day in fact. It was also a hard day. I did pretty well but sadness lurked just beneath the surface of my emotions all day. I also realize that even had we been in the U.S. we probably wouldn’t have seen much of our kids anyway. Our son is married and (rightly so) starting his own family traditions with his wife in their home. No doubt our daughter would have taken off mid-way through the day to spend time with friends. It’s the nature of having grown “kids” who have lives of their own.

At least that’s what I tell myself. Makes the 6,000 mile separation a little easier.

But I have an amazing hubby who made me peaches and cream for dessert and bought me peacock feathers. So the sadness never overwhelmed and I enjoyed Christmas in Argentina.

Our picnic with co-workers in the Sierras was wonderful. We had a beautiful day for it, bright and sunny and warm (but not too hot). Aguila Blanca, a former mica mine, is now a scenic park with stone asadors tucked into the hillsides and a bubbling creek winding through. Poplars lined the area where we set up our picnic. The girls immediately headed for the water. Who could resist? While the men started the fire. We came prepared with our own wood and charcoal so it didn’t take long to get a good fire going, and the parilla (metal grate) fit perfectly into the stone base. Mmmmmm, doesn’t all that meat look yummy? Ivan isn’t venturing too far from it ☺ While they were manning the grill, a boy came to see if anyone would like to buy a peacock. Well…no. None of us have a big enough yard (and how do you take care of a peacock, anyway?). But Ivan bargained with the boy to buy a couple of the feathers. I wasn’t there but our co-workers told me that Ivan was practicing his African bargaining skills ☺

By the time we finished eating all the goodies and meat and potato salad, we were exhausted. As you can see. Eating is hard work!

And it was right about then that the sky started getting dark. So we quickly packed up and high-tailed it for home.

Hadn’t been home for long when Ivan saw peaches on the ground under our tree out back. Some were ripe so he peeled and sliced them, added some cream and voila! we had dessert. Yummy!

And so ended our first Christmas away from family. Our first Christmas with a traditional picnic and asado. Our first Christmas in a country that desperately needs to hear what Christmas is really all about.