Adventures of Cameron & Emma in Buenos Aires

It’s hard to say where Christmas started or ended for us. While Christmas Eve (or, La Noche Buena, as it is called in Spanish) deserves its own blog entry, I will briefly summarize. Our friend, Nico, decided to take on the task of reserving us a table for dinner, and he picked a parilla (an Argentine grill restaurant) in Puerto Madero (which is possibly the most expensive area of the city). While he assured us it would be an average-priced meal, we ended up being locked into a fairly pricing prix fixe menu. We decided since it was all you can drink wine until midnight, we might as well take advantage, and we ended up downright jolly by the end of the meal. (On a side note, we ate crocodile– apparently they eat it in Northern Argentina).

So, after a relatively late and long christmas eve, we awoke the next morning around 1 to exchange stockings. Emma had been indescribably giddy all week about the stockings, and when we ventured out Christmas eve to search for materials, we found all the fabric stores were closed. So, Emma cleverly purchased soccer socks from a tourist area of town, and she took the initiative of sewing the two socks into one for a total of 7 people. (Nico, Cam, and Preston also helped). Her hard work was not unappreciated- everyone was very happy with the stockings, gifts, and effort (possibly most of all Paige and Lyel, who opened their first stockings ever– they are Jewish).

We did start the morning off right, frying up hash browns (two types!) It was really special since potatoes are not eaten here for breakfast and we have been going through a three month withdrawal. Then we topped it off with mimosas, which continued until we had finished all the Champagne in the house (another stocking stuffer from Emma). Finally, we decided to mimic Cam’s family tradition and cook an ethnic food for dinner- we, like the Peake’s chose Moroccan. However, because we were unable to find chicken before the stores closed on Christmas Eve, were forced to eat vegetarian and make some substitutions– most notably eggplant in place of chicken and pineapple in place of dried apricots. However, the meal (topped off with lentil soup, sweet potato fries, and a cucumber salad), while not traditional was delicious (and served to a total of ten people!).

Now we have decided to go on a alcohol and carb detox for the next few days… at least until cam’s parents arrive on friday.