Merry Christmas, my leg is on fire

Ho ho ho! Sort of. Due to the warmish weather and general total-differentness of Christmas season in Peru, I repeatedly forgot about Christmas this year. But there it was, and I enjoyed it!

They typically celebrate la noche buena (Christmas Eve) much more than the 25th, so I decided when in Rome.. I accepted a dinner invitation last night to go out with my 12 Argentines who I´d met on the Inca Trail, plus 5 more of their friends, plus the other honeymooning Argentine couple I met while stranded in Aguas Calientes after finishing the Inca Trail. So yes, I was out with 19 Argentines, making me the crazy gringa rounding things out to 20 people. We went to a nice place right on the Plaza de Armas in downtown Cusco and I ordered a traditional feast, which involved coca sours (pisco sours with coca), champagne, a stuffed turkey dish, and a quinoa dessert... all was delicious, albeit slightly strange (note: quinoa doesn´t make very good dessert, just sayin´).

At midnight we headed out into the plaza to check the fireworks, and I swear I have never seen anything like it. It´s like the 4th of July on crack. There were so many fireworks exploding at once all around the city that it sounded like a war was going on, and the sky was filled with explosions and smoke. Also there had been an artisan fair in the plaza all day long, and vendors had left trash around, so kids were going around setting piles of trash on fire, so it really looked like a war zone And just to make things extra exciting, the local hooligans thought it was hilarious to not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES throw their fireworks directly at us after setting them on fire, and so they kept exploding at our feet and we´d have to run away as they went off!!! Kind of scary... but also funny in retrospect! I´m just glad my leg didn´t get blown off, so yay for that.



Tonight I´m overnighting back to Arequipa, and will arrive tomorrow morning at Kieran´s once again. The plan is to make a huge Christmas feast and drink beer. The perfect December 26th. Merry xmas to all!

Feast of the Seven Fishes

Tonight, I will partake in my favorite holiday tradition: The Feast of the Seven Fishes. (read a bit about it here)... Which means you caught me. I actually do like certain aspects of the holidays, although I will say that all of the parts I like seem to miraculously revolve around food and alcohol. Shocking.

Despite my outward appearance, I am 50% Italian (my dad is 100% Italian). So whenever I am home visiting Dad for Christmas, we always head over to our Cousin Linda's house in South Philly to join my Italian half of the family for this traditional Christmas Eve feast. It is just what is sounds like-- a full-fledged feast, course upon course upon course of different types of fish (at least 7, but sometimes more), meats, cheeses, pastas, breads, salads, and desserts. And of course, wine. And beer. And whiskey. And more wine.

What's not to love?

This year will be slightly different because all of my cousins (Larry, Richard, and Jimmy) have had kids in the last couple of years, totaling 7 kids in all. So what used to be a meal at which I was the baby, suddenly I am one of the adults and am no longer banished to the kiddie table. Yup, I'm all grown up.. at least compared to a room filled with screaming infants. This should be interesting...

Anyway, I'll be festive for a moment, and say that I love any excuse to eat, drink, and be merry with my crazy family. Sure, I'm the black sheep-- I mean hell, I'm a redhead at a table filled with Italian-looking Italians-- and I generally only see these people once a year. But when we get into a room filled with Cousin Linda's home cooking and enough alcohol to knock out a cattle farm, suddenly we all have something to smile about.

So cheers to eating, drinking, eating, and drinking. And family. Merry Christmas Eve, peeps.

Love,
Erica