Peacock Feathers, First Peaches & Surviving Christmas Away From Family

What? You can't see the connection?

Yesterday was a good day. An excellent day in fact. It was also a hard day. I did pretty well but sadness lurked just beneath the surface of my emotions all day. I also realize that even had we been in the U.S. we probably wouldn't have seen much of our kids anyway. The son is married and (rightly so) starting his own family traditions with his wife in their home. No doubt the daughter would have taken off mid-way through the day to spend time with friends. It's the nature of having grown "kids" who have lives of their own.

At least that's what I tell myself. Makes the 6,000 mile separation a little easier.

But I have an amazing hubby who made me peaches and cream for dessert and bought me peacock feathers. So the sadness never overwhelmed and I enjoyed Christmas in Argentina.

Our picnic in the Sierras was wonderful. We had a beautiful day for it, bright and sunny and warm (but not too hot). Aguila Blanca, a former mica mine, is now a scenic park with stone asadors tucked into the hillsides and a bubbling creek winding through. Poplars lined the area where we set up our picnic. The girls immediately headed for the water. Who could resist? While the men started the fire. We came prepared with our own wood and charcoal so it didn't take long to get a good fire going, and the parilla (metal grate) fit perfectly into the stone base. Mmmmmm, doesn't all that meat look yummy? The hubby isn't venturing too far from it :-) It was while they were manning the grill that a boy came to see if we'd like to buy a peacock. Well...no. None of us have a big enough yard. But the hubby bargained the kid down on a couple of the feathers. I wasn't there but our co-workers told me my hubby was practicing his African bargaining skills :-)

By the time we finished eating all the goodies and meat and potato salad, we were exhausted. As you can see. Eating is hard work!

And it was right about then that the sky started getting dark. So we quickly packed up and high-tailed it for home.

Hadn't been home for long when hubby saw peaches on the ground out back. Some were ripe so he peeled and sliced them, added some cream and voila! we had dessert. Yummy! The peaches are coming on fast so I foresee a busy time of figuring out what to do with all of them! We had a freezer for 28 years but left it in the States when we came (220 instead of 110, you know). Really miss having the extra freezer space, especially at times like this, so we're going to see what it would cost to buy a small freezer. With it just the two of us now, we don't need a big one. But it sure would be nice to pull out bags of peaches in the dead of winter next year :-) Also thinking I really need to find some canning jars and make some peach jam.

Of course for now, we'll eat as many as we can fresh. Have you ever had a peach right off the tree? WON-DER-FUL! We had some with our yogurt and granola this morning and when the hubby goes shopping later he'll get some vanilla ice cream. Because vanilla ice cream and fresh peaches is his absolute, all-time, most favorite dessert.

What's yours?