Fruit Cake

Panettone  =  Addiction!

I remember trying fruit cake as a youth and hating it! Panettone by Los Confiteros (our local neighborhood panaderia) is not a fruit cake, it is marvillosa!

 I have eaten (with Alan helping, of course) 2 of these wonderful bread creations this holiday season!

We are talking dried fruits like I have never tasted before!

 Dried cherries, figs, candied nuts, dates, something like an apricot, raisins (and I don't like raisins) and chocolate mixed in here and there. I have enjoyed it for breakfast and lunch and for dessert at dinner time. I want to buy another one, but Alan is hesitating because he knows I will eat the whole thing!

And while we're on the subject of fruit, Isabel our local Almacen store owner and chef, makes an incredible fruit cup. This is another addiction of mine! Lots of fresh apples, orange slices, bananas, kiwi and one cherry in orange juice. Yum yum

Christmas Cheer

It was 11am on last Tuesday and Alan had just finished teaching a class at our center to these 2 return missionaries. We were buzzing them through the security gates and we found this young man passed out at our gate!

 He wasn't there at 8:30 in the morning when we came in those gates. My question was, is he alive?
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Oh good, he rolled over!  He had some nice shoes on and a blanket with him! The director of our center called the police.  The police didn't show up when a gal at our office was robbed on the street, so I doubt they will show up for this. When we left the office he was still there.  Too much holiday cheer I suppose.

Christmas Lockdown 2014

This is the outside of our apartment door and we are locked inside our apartment on Christmas Day because our lock broke! Luckily we were locked inside with food and an air conditioner and not locked outside of our apartment! (door decor was a gift from a volunteer at our office)

The key would not work, we tried and tried! We even tried to take the door off it's hinges, but the door hinges down here are not the same as in the states.

Christmas day and no one was working, the streets were empty! We were scheduled to deliver bread to homeless people on the streets with 2 sister missionaries at 11am.  We picked up the bread on the 24th (picture below) and the bread was at our office, we were locked in our apartment. So to my happiness and joy we got to FaceTime with our children and see the grandkids open their presents!

Grandma (me) couldn't be happier!!!!!! Christmas Day was full of family, laughter and cheer! Very selfish I know!

On the 26th we called our building attendant, no answer. We called our landlord and she gave us a number for a locksmith, no answer. So we called our good friend Eduardo and he was here in 5 minutes with a locksmith! For future reference, if you live on the 5th floor and you need to toss keys to your apartment building security gates to let someone in, you wrap the keys in a towel and put them in a bag and toss! And everyone needs a good friend like Eduardo (pictured below)!

In 5 minutes we had a new lock installed and Freedom!!!!!

Testing the new lock and it worked! $60 US dollars for parts and labor and a house call on a holiday (the 26th is also a holiday in Argentina) and remember he was here in 5 minutes! Now what should we do with this old heavy broken lock!!! Down here you don't throw away such a heavy item, it should have another use, any ideas?

FREEDOM!! Now if our building should catch fire I don't have to use a chair to break down the door to get out! (yes I had planned a strategy for such a scenario, be prepared is my motto)

Feliz Navidad

The Rosario Stake Center has this large nativity outside of their chapel.  I have no idea how they keep the little kids from playing with it! Those planters won't keep them out!

The  Christmas tree (below) is in the entry of our chapel, Parque Urquica

Sunday we traveled to Las Delicias Ward (below) and we found this darling nativity. The plant/tree is real and after sacrament meeting some sisters were taking a heart of the plant/tree and hurrying to the Primary room. Never did find out what that was all about.

This is real grass that the nativity is sitting on.  It was so cute and once again, how are they keeping the children from playing with it?

The Nativity scene below we found in Our Lady of the Rosary's Cathedral Basilica built in 1731. We went there last week and baby Jesus wasn't in the display, but on Christmas Eve he was in his place.  They were holding a service inside and we quickly walked to the front of the Cathedral and snapped these 2 pictures so they aren't the best.  Confessions were also taking place, but I couldn't get a good shot of that. The priest was sitting in the open with a divider between him and the confessor, there was a long line waiting for their turn.  The line moved very quickly! We could see the priest as we walked by, he was wearing levis, tennis shoes and was young.

And this is our little nativity decor in our apartment! Merry Christmas everyone!

HO HO HO

We have seen some classic Santa's down here! Of course I like the Saxophone Santa the best! I think he road into town on his red motorcycle!

The gals in our office went and bought a Christmas tree for our room and made a couple of little decorations. I am becoming a tinsel fan.

This Santa looks better in this picture than in real life.  I call him Slick Willy Santa.

The Costume stores have strange looking Santas.

This wall Santa is my favorite! Right out of the 1950's.  The picture doesn't do him justice, he is sparkly with gold glitter and a tan face!

This poor Santa (below pic), it was so hot!!  It was 91 degrees with humidity! I wish I would have gotten my picture with him!

Walking to work we found this fun meat shop with a very festive cow!

Moo.....y Christmas everyone!