Christmas time

So for all of you out there wondering what Christmas is like in Brasil.....here it is! IT'S HOT!!!!! We have spent quite a bit of our time in the past few weeks in the pool! (Thank God we got a house with a pool!) We don't have air conditioning so taking a dip is the most efficient way to cool off. Fortunately, we have fans in the bedrooms and screens on the shutters but it is certainly summer time down here!
Brasilians usually spend Christmas on the beach so it's become pretty quite in the neighborhood just this past week. It's rare to hear Christmas music here. Even what we do hear is in Portuguese, of course! The houses have a few decorations up, but not in the quantity as you would see in the States. The stores in town have been staying open until 10or 11pm to give people plenty of time to shop. It has been very busy, with lots of cars and foot traffic in town. I went to the grocery store this morning (christmas eve) and it was a complete zoo! Brasilians are very social and enjoy chatting with their friends. The grocery store is the perfect place to run into their friends, so everywhere I turned, there were Brasilians just standing in the middle of the aisle with their carts blocking it! It was quite a pleasant experience seeing everyone happy and smiling at one another. The Christmas spirit was obvious in the smiles and jovial manner of most of the people I saw there. I even got stopped a couple of times by people I know. I eventually got out of there after more than an hour!
It has been interesting trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We spent last Saturday in the pool listening to Christmas carols on the stereo. Very, very strange........ As for putting up a tree, the price for trees down here is obscene! Instead of spending money, this year I decided to make one out of paper. I taped together 3 large pieces of paper to be about 6 feet tall. I drew a quick outline of a Christmas tree on it and Garrett and I filled it in with green tempera paint hand prints (fingers pointing down). After it dried, I taped it up onto the wall and then taped Christmas lights to it. Garrett, my girlfriend Allie and I all made a bunch of snowflakes to cover the wires of the lights. I cut a bunch of circles out of red construction paper and then got out the glitter and glue and decorated them. Garrett and I then went and picked up pine-cones from around the neighborhood and we hung these on the tree as well. I will post pictures soon so you can see it.
For Christmas Dinner we are having about 15 people over. We understand how hard it is to be out of your country, especially during the holidays, so we invited over the rest of the expatriates. Everybody is bringing something, so we should be having quite a feast. So far the menu looks like this: turkey, ham, pork loin, chipotle sauce, gravies, mashed potatos, dressing, broccoli-rice casserole, pasta, salad, BBQ cheese, garlic bread and BBQ pineapple. For dessert, homemade banana pudding, apple crisp, cookies, and Brasilian Caipira cake with white chocolate shavings over white cake, coconut and doce de leite cream filling and cherries. I also made home made eggnog this year! Nobody will be leaving hungry!!!!

We leave Monday for the Amazon!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are all so excited, it's hard to imagine we are really going! The tour includes New Years Eve on the boat to bring in the new year with champagne! We will put up lots of pictures to share with you all.
Have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas and a very prosperous New Year! I'll post again next year! Tchau, Pam

Finishing up the year

So Halloween was really cool. We had a party with about 30 people here, most of which had never been to a Halloween party before. There were kids who came by the house to trick-or-treat and I was VERY generous with the candy. Garrett and his Canadian buddies went out trick-or-treating and came home with maybe a handful of candy each.
Thanksgiving was AWESOME! I cooked for all of the Americans here, which came to 12 people. We had turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatos, green beans, candied carrots and cranberry sauce (imported from the States by my girlfriend Paula). For dessert I made 2 apple pies and 3 pumpkin pies. Blake set up the TV so the guys could even watch American football!!! Everyone was fat and happy! It couldn't have been better!!!
It is VERY hard to get into the Christmas mood. The weather is still warm and getting warmer every day. Last week we swam every single day!! Unfortunately, Garrett got an ear infection so I had to take him into the pediatrician. Dr. Guido is Brasilian but speaks wonderful English! He lives in our neighborhood and has an office right behind the grocery store in town. He was truly helpful and kind! He even gave me his home and cell phones in case of any other emergencies!
We are staying home for Christmas and having the other expatriates over for dinner. We didn't buy a tree this year. Instead, we finger painted a tree onto the back of some old Blueprint papers Blake brought home. It's about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide at the base. I cut it out and taped it to the wall. I then taped Christmas lights to it and decorated it with paper snowflakes. Garrett and I have been collecting pinecones to decorate with glitter and glue. We will hang some of these on the tree and then top it with a star made from construction paper and glitter. I'll post pictures when I get it done!
We are hoping to go up into the Amazon over the New Year holiday. Blake doesn't have a lot of time off from work, but he will manage to get a few days. We are planning on going up to Manaus and staying at a resort for 4 days and 3 nights. It will be extremely hot and the mosquitos will be atrocious! But it will be absolutely worth it, and we brought plenty of bug spray with us for just such an occassion! We will take lots and lots of pictures and I will post soon after we get back.
Feliz Natal (Merry Christmas) to everyone! Tchau, Pam