Our Argentine friends here are from a family with three generations. The mother who is in her 70s hosts the holiday celebrations at her house. Knowing that I was on my own, she invited me to join her family.

Young people here start going out to clubs around midnight and will return at daybreak. Fortunately, I was with this family that is more oriented to celebrating at home on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Her three sons and their wives and children came and brought food, an assortment of meat and vegetable dishes. The homemade desserts were what I enjoyed the most. Most Argentines are of Italian and Spanish descent and do not have a tradition of baking at home. They buy desserts. The ice cream is incredible! But this family is of German descent. They have a tradition of home baking and I enjoy their desserts tremendously. If you are interested in Argentine recipes check out the website http://www.lifeinargentina.com.

We started gathering around 9 pm for a dinner at 10 pm. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are summertime holidays here and we sat outside for both meals. The fireworks started when it became dark but seemed to reach intensity between 11 and 1 pm.

I have to take an afternoon nap to be able to stay up so late. But then, the afternoon nap, the siesta, is a tradition preserved in the Suburbs and small towns but not in downtown Buenos Aires. In the Suburbs where I live, all the shops close between 1 pm and 4 pm, sometimes until 5 pm. People generally do not telephone you between 2 and 4 pm, if they know you are retired, just in case you are having your siesta.

On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve the floating lanterns from China were beautiful. I had never seen them before. They are small paper parachutes, about a foot and a half across, with a burning pot below. The pot has a candle or another burning substance. The heat from the candle raises the lantern like a balloon and it floats across the sky. Even though it is nighttime you can see the lantern because of the fire below it. I do not know if theses floating lanterns are permitted in the States. There may be regulations here in Argentina against them but no one would bother to enforce them.

Since the Fourth of July is an American Holiday, you would not expect to celebrate it here, but the Lincoln International School, http://www.lincoln.edu.ar, along with the American Embassy, sponsor a Fourth of July picnic. However, they do not have it in July. July is the coldest month here. It is rainy and windy.

They sponsor the Fourth of July picnic during February or March when it is summer here. There are hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, submarine sandwiches, sack races and lots of carnival-like booths. It is a safe place to bring the entire family. Because security is tight, you must sign up beforehand.

The Embassy has booths where you can buy some of the food items that can be hard if not impossible to locate here, for example marshmallows, maple syrup, peanut butter, and sweetened condensed milk, to name a few. We also bought some T-shirts that read United States Embassy Buenos Aires and have the eagle also.  Quite attractive!

I have gone back to the USA twice in 16 months to see family and to shop for clothes. (I wear a size 16.  Anything over a size 10 can be hard to find here.)  However, I have not been homesick living here Buenos Aires. The family members closest to me are no longer living, and the world has changed so much since I lived overseas in Spain during the 70s and England during the 80s.

It was hard for me to find a hamburger in Spain during the 70s. I could find them only in the capital city of Madrid and the quality was horrid. I did not have email and the Internet in those two previous periods of living abroad.  In Spain in the 70s I had to arrange for an international phone call about half an hour before I was going to call.  It would cost about $25 US to speak for half an hour. Those are 70s dollars I am writing about. It is so much easier and cheaper to email someone today. It is so much easier to stay in touch.

There is so much to do in this cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires. If I become bored, it is my fault. Things slow down during January when everyone goes on their summer vacation, but things will start up again in February. 

I have been to my local town council office to ask about the free tango lessons that start in March. I can hardly wait!

To read more about our legal immigration to Argentina and life in general in Argentina, check out my Moving to Argentina E-Book. This E-Book is available on my website at http://www.lifeinargentina.com. 

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