Merry Belated Christmas!

This year was a very different Christmas for me. Last year I spent it with my Ecuador family in Santo Domingo Ecuador in nice hot tropical weather. This year I spent it with my man and my dog in freezing rain! Haha. It was lots of fun though.

Christmas Eve was busy and the day before Marco and I went shopping for Nativity scene supplies. We built one out of cardboard boxes and paper. It was really fun and it turned out pretty well. What do you think? I had various errands to run on Saturday but in the evening I sang with The Guardians at Dragon's Palate and we celebrated the holiday with a toast with champagne and paneton. Now, like I mentioned in my last blog, paneton is Latin America's version of fruitcake and unlike American fruitcake, it's DELICIOUS! The custom here is to eat paneton with hot chocolate. Talk about a great custom and a wonderful way to get nice and chubby during the holiday season. Marco and I shared some paneton and hot chocolate when we got home and watched all the fireworks that kids set off at midnight. It's another great tradition here. The noise from fireworks fills the night at midnight and lasts about half an hour. It was beautiful. Marco has a great view of the city all the way down to the airport. I spent the afternoon cooking Eggplant Parmasean for Marco and myself. He had never tried eggplant before so I thought it fitting to make a delcious eggplant meal. He liked it and I enjoyed making it. I didn't have time to make the pumpkin pie I wanted to but I am going to make it tomorrow so that I have one for Carole's baby shower (she is a piano teacher at Qantu) and one for Marco, Gabriel and I to share when they get back from Lima this weekend.



Christmas day was super lazy. We didn't get out of bed until 11am and later we ate takeout roasted chicken from El Tablon. Around 5:45 I headed over to help with moving our equipment to The Frogs and do the sound check. It went well and I had about 2 hours before I had to be back so I decided to check out the new Starbucks in the plaza de armas. Yup, there is now a Starbucks in Cusco. It wasn't enough to have a McDonald's and KFC. No bustling international city is complete without a Starbucks right? I really can't complain. Starbucks is totally my guilty pleasure and since a drink costs at the least 10 soles here it will have to be a once in a while treat for me. It's actually a good thing that the wi-fi doesn't work on my computer for some reason. It means I will be less tempted to go there and stay or decide to choose it as the place where I want to get work done on the internet. Fortunately, we will soon have internet at Marco's place so I won't have to waste any more money going to cafe's to use the internet. I can always use Maximo Nivel which is what I am doing right now but sometimes I don't feel like being at Maximo. I want a more comfortable atmosphere. Anyway, the show went off without a hitch and we had a great time. Christian liked the show so I think we will be back again. I sure hope so!



I was a little bummed that I wasn't able to skype with everyone on Christmas Eve at the Servillo Christmas Eve party but it's all good. I sent everyone a facebook message to let them know I was thinking about them. I am sure I will be home for Christmas in the next few years or so. The Servillo's Christmas Eve party is something I really really miss. It is always so much fun and being surrounded by all the people I grew up around is comforting. I know there are new traditions to be had and of course, eventually everyone will be married and off doing different Christmas time things so I can't be too sad about it. I will always have great memories!

I am super excited to meet Gabriel, Marco's son. He will be here in about 5 days and will stay for a month and a half. I am nervous because I really want him to like me and I want him to know that I will never try and be his mom. He has a mom. I will be more like the fun girlfriend who he likes to hang out with and whose dog he will love. :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Hannukah!