Celebrating Christmas!!

Eclairs
Polenta
Insane
Christmas

We arrived into Los Alerces National Park on Christmas Eve, and after dinner I brought out my sweetie stash to share with the group - as Christmas means mountains of overindulgence on chocs and sweets. I had been looking in supermarkets for a Celebrations or Quality Street equivalent, but Argentinians, despite being sweet-toothed, do not seem to go in for big boxes of chocolates. Instead I settled for a massive bag of toffee eclairs and a large bag of hard boiled sweets which I had mistakenly taken as chews. On seeing me fill bowls with sweeties Pete was not to be outdone, he jumped into the truck and opened the secret food stash, revealing a yard long box of Jaffa cakes! Needless to say a major sugarfest was had. The eclairs were decimated and I was glad that I had the foresight to hold back half the pack for Christmas Day!

Francois and Sue alternated as DJ, keeping the party atmosphere going. Me and Steve played a few table football games against Robin and Jane/Colin. We lost woefully, came up with superb excuses and sadly did not take defeat so well - which is unusual for Liverpool supporters ;-p!

Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, shenanigans were had, people became human skittles - falling over all over the shop, a few tree branches got very friendly with Ken, and so he returned the favour by hugging one for quite some time. We rang in Christmas Day at midnight.

Christmas Day bought lots of fun. Secret Santas were revealed. Ken got me a lovely wooden diary so that I could easily update my blog. My little note to Jeanne had her, Heather and Kirsten in tears, that hadn't been the intention but I was glad that she liked it and the accompanying gifts.

Pete looked uber cool as a shade-clad Santa, he's been growing out his beard especially for that role. Kirsten was decked out as Rudolf and Graham gamely donned a pair of tights in order to be Santa's helper elf.

Games of twister were played, with forfeits like downing 'shots' of Jameson and receiving wet willies were rife. UNO cards also made an appearance and Sue ended up with some horrendous hands. Playing with Odyssey rules the game goes on forever, but great fun is had. Robin and Colin checked if me and Steve wanted a table football rematch, sadly the restaurant owners seemed to have 'misplaced' the ball - personally I think they hid it in the hope of a quiet evening. All was not lost though as Robin produced small rubber balls that we made do with, they weren't ideal, but were better than nothing. Again Steve and I lost the first match, it was not looking good at all. Then, by some Christmas miracle we won a match. Delighted with ourselves we left it at that, both agreeing that playing a decider would be pushing our luck and we should instead bow out on a high.

Christmas dinner was amazing with a spread of lamb, beef, pork and sausages, roast butternut squash, white cabbage, aubergines, polenta, and potato salad. We had Panettone and orange chocolate cake for dessert - nom nom!!

St. Stephan's Day was a relaxed, chilled out affair. Most of the day was spent sunbathing, reading books or in my case playing with kittens. A small handful of insane nutters did venture into the glacial lake, as apparently it's a Boxing Day tradition in the UK. Daft as brushes the lot of 'em! My excuse was that I did not think that the icy cold conditions would have been suitable for my toe, when probably it could have been the best thing for it. Heather, Francois and Tony were first to take the plunge. Graham rather regretfully dived in off the pier after foolishly betting that Heather would wuss out, not get wet nor put her head under the water. Unfortunately for him I got photographic evidence so he had to man up and deliver on his end. Loads of giggles were had and no one seemed to catch hypothermia - so all in all it was a good day!