We're having a par-tay!

Tonight is the annual Christmas dinner for the group of believers in Carlos Paz. It's raining and looks like it might keep up all day but that shouldn't affect anything. Our asador is under the patio roof and we'll be eating indoors anyway.

I'm making potato salad and am considering making popcorn balls. I just think that would make a pretty centerpiece, to have the balls covered in saran wrap and tied with a bow, then piled in a basket. Plus it's a treat not common here so it would be something different. I'll probably also make a cake of some sort.

Normally I am super organized and would not only know what I was making, but already have it made. But this week isn't going according to plan and I'm surprisingly okay with that. The laid-back culture here is growing on me :-)

Tomorrow we head to Santa Rosa de Calamuchita for a few days. I've actually been more concerned with getting ready for that trip than thinking about tonight's dinner. Making lists, going through boxes to figure out what we need to take, brainstorming with the hubby about our plans. He wants to get some work done while we're there, so we need to figure out what materials and tools to take.

The plan is to start working on a new, sturdier fence...in hopes the neighbor won't be able to get in and let his animals graze -- and leave droppings -- on the lawn any more. Also going to trim some trees and bushes that have become quite overgrown. I'm taking my sewing machine and a few projects.

One of the things I've really missed is good cheese. I mean, you can find good cheese here but NOT cheddar. And I love me some cheddar! Especially sharp white. So we've been on a quest to find something that approximates cheddar flavor, without success so far. A friend recently suggested that we check in Belgrano the next time we're in the area. And Belgrano happens to be the town right next to Santa Rosa de Calamuchita :-) Founded by German settlers in the 1930s, you can find all kinds of yummy food stuffs not typical to Argentina but common in German cooking. So I'm hoping!!!

Because we'll be out in the country where they still haven't run phone lines, we won't have internet. And I won't be posting much, if at all. Last time we were there, we went into a nearby town to a place with wifi but it was so slow that when I tried to upload a blog post, it kept timing out. We won't be back to Carlos Paz until Christmas Eve so I may be taking a blogging break until after the holiday.

I have a feeling I won't be the only one. Sounds like everyone is very busy and this next week y'all are going into hyperspeed with parties and family gatherings and the kids home from school and...Hope you all have a very blessed, wonderful Christmastime of celebrating the birth of Jesus!