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Published: January 17th 2007
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So for the first time in my life, I would not be spending Christmas at my parent's place back in New Brunswick. Needless to say, this would be the first time that Christmas is in summer for me as well. Strange not having snow around or cold weather, however, as I have heard the news from Canada, I realize that our weather was pretty similar before and during Christmas 😊 I tell you though, it is pretty hard to get in the Christmas spirit when there are few Christmas decorations around town and the days just keep getting longer, unlike Canada where at 4:30PM, it is dark.
The darn cold hasn't gone away but quite a bit of rest has made it much better. I had to go shopping for the gift exchange we were going to have on Christmas Eve and that really took absolutely everything out of me. I was ready to collapse after about an hour of shopping. Luckily I found gifts so I wouldn't have to go out on Christmas Eve again to buy more stuff.
The night before Christmas Eve, Karin, Kevin, Kevin's friend Patrick, and I were all preparing food for the Christmas
dinner the next evening. My job was to cook the chicken that I got from my employer. When I took the chicken out of the bag, to my surprise the head of the chicken was still attached. Now what the heck to I do with a chicken head? So I went to remove the giblets from inside the chicken, and what do I find, the chicken feet. I wish I had more training in Chinese cooking because I am sure I could have used these parts to good use. So, I cut the neck and head of the chicken. No one could really watch me do it, but it really didn't bother me too much. I was beginning to think that maybe there is something wrong with me. So I stuffed the chicken with some lemons and onions to give it some more flavour and threw it into the oven. Karin and Kevin were cooking up some other dishes and when I went to check on the progress of the chicken, I noticed that they were stealing all my gas (as I have a gas oven) on the burners so the oven was still only warm, not hot enough to
Christmas Market in La Paz
Look at all that panatone! cook the bird. I guess I would be slow cooking the bird instead or roasting it 😊 In the mean time, I ended up helping Karin pour Christmas candies which was a messy job. At around 12:30AM, the chicken was done but then I had to let it cool down so I could cut it up to fit into my tiny bar fridge. The reason why I cooked it the day before is because I was scared that I would run out of gas in my oven on Christmas Eve with a half cooked chicken. If I ran out of gas on the day before Christmas Eve, I would be able to flag down the truck that brings gas around the next day to finish it off.
Christmas Eve I woke up feeling much better. First thing I had to do was make bread dough for the sweet potato bread I had promised. So I put that together and had to put the heater in my ironing room off my kitchen so that the dough has somewhere warm to rise as my apartment is always so cold (remember... no central heating and no insulation) I got everything together to
make stuffing to accompany the chicken and then waited around until the dough was done rising so I could bake it. After the bread came out of the oven, I headed out to see what was going on in La Paz on Christmas Eve. Nothing really out of the ordinary was going on. The markets were still busy, traffic was still going on the main road, but I will say for Christmas Eve, it was really warm and sunny!
Around 6:00PM, everything started to come together. Most of the food was cooked, my apartment was setup to handle 8 people and was well decorated. The eight people comprised of 4 Swedish people, 3 Canadians and 1 Mexican/Canadian. Two Swedish girls who knew Linnea had just arrived in La Paz on Christmas Eve and were leaving the next morning for Santiago, so we invited them and Kevin's friend Patrick was visiting from Ecuador. The other five comprised of Kevin, Karin, Linnea, Alejandro and the host, me. For the first part of the evening, we sat around talking, eating snack food, drinking wine and glögg (Swedish mulled wine), watched some Swedish Christmas cartoon (I found out that at one point in
The chicken I got from my employer
When opening up the bag that the chicken was stored in, I was very surprised to find the head still attached. When cleaning out the inside, I notice the feet had been put in there. I wish I had more Chinese cooking experience, because I have no idea what to do with these parts of the chicken. history, Sweden had poor areas 😊 ), and finished up cooking some last minute things. Finally around 9:45PM, we sat down for the gift exchange. The way the gift exchange worked was that each person was to buy three presents totaling 100 bolivianos. We were to wrap the presents and leave no sign of who they were from. The way to get a gift is to roll dice and have two of the same number. Once a pair is rolled, the person takes any gift they want and leaves it unopen. This goes on around the table until everyone has at least one gift and there are no gifts left on the table. Then comes time to open the gifts and describe to everyone what it is, because in round 2, you have the chance to steal peoples gifts. A timer is set with a time that only one person knows, and the rolling continues. Everytime a pair is rolled, you could steal a gift from anybody at the table, as long as everyone steal had at least one gift. This was the fun round. It is amazing how many times some gifts switched hands. I think I ended up
Homemade Christmas Candies
That Karin made and I helped pour. with three gifts at the end...average 😊
After the gift exchange, we reheated some of the food and it was finally time to eat Christmas dinner....11:30PM. Our buffet was an assortment of foods, both for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. There was so much food and unfortunately none of us were really that hungry because we had been snacking all night and of course, enjoying some wine. The food to choose from was: Vegetarian Picana (a traditional Bolivian Christmas soup that usually includes almost every kind of meat possible), Lentil Loaf, Beet Salad, Quinoa Salad, Potato Gratin, Chicken, Stuffing, Tofu Meatballs (and amazingly they tasted like real meatballs), vegetarian pickled "herring" and sweet potato bread. For dessert there was pepperkakor (Swedish ginger cookies), shortbread cookies, a saffron cake and a Christmas rice pudding.
After dinner, we pushed the table aside and turned my dining room and living room into a dance area where we had music going for a while, enjoy more wine and Singani, and chewed on coca leaves until about three in the morning. What a fun night it was! Hard to believe the next day I woke wake up and it would be Christmas day.
I
The cooked chicken
I cooked in the day before because of the fear I would run out of gas for my stove/oven on Christmas eve. Wouldn't that be a nightmare! woke up at about 9AM on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, since I have no chimney (ie. no heating), Santa Claus was unable to enter my apartment to drop off any gifts. Both Karin and I were very disappointed. Why wouldn't they install a chimney for Santa. We didn't really out any snack for Santa, but I am sure he could have found something to drink in the bar. When my family in New Brunswick was eating breakfast, I had some time to chat with them to how Christmas was going back in Canada. Everyone seemed pretty tired Christmas Day, probably because of the amount of alcohol will consumed. Today, besides being Jesus's birthday, it was Linnea's birthday as well! In the afternoon, we took some of our leftovers and headed to a park to have a picnic. Who knows, maybe in a few years if our government in Canada never does anything about the environment, I'll be able to enjoy a picnic on Christmas day with 20 degree weather. At the park, they were giving out gifts to children (I am assuming more unfortunate children) and the line went on and on. The children looked very happy to be receiving gifts.
Sweet Potato Bread
This is another part of my contribution to the Christmas dinner table. Some even posed for me to take pictures of.
In the evening, we ate more leftovers at Alejandro and Linnea's apartment, finally dived into the Christmas desserts as no one could fit any in the night before and played a few games of "Clue". I was a very good detective that night. Going to bed on Christmas night, I could think of one thing: tomorrow I leave down to travel for two weeks.... YIPPEE!
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