Celebrate Christmas in Santiago

I'm a very lucky lady :)

This was my first Christmas away from my family and I approached it with bravery, selfishness and excitement. Great mix of emotions, right?

Christmas with my family is a BLAST! Since I wasn't there this year, I sent them the following video:

Christmas 2012 from Jaclyn Karnowski on Vimeo.

A typical Christmas in my family can be summarized into: holiday spirits to spike the laughter :)

I bake a lot. My mom has a fully stocked kitchen with ingredients, gadgets and the space! 

My pups and I snuggle, we go for chilly winter runs together and Ginger likes to chew on my Christmas shorts. 

My Mom's sister and her family come to our house to celebrate on the 25th and all we do is eat, drink and play with the many dogs that we love! 

My cousin Scott: can be found with at least 1 dog, a book and snazzy glasses. 

My cousins, sister and I get to spend quality time together. Scheming new chapters of our life, sharing great memories of the year, drinking lots and laughing! 

Of course, we eat like kings and queens. Prime rib. Red wine. Potatoes and leafy winter salads. Lots of Christmas cookies (thanks Em! and Mom!). Don't forget we eat homemade cinnamon rolls and quiche to start the day…with Mimosas, of course. 

But back to Chilean Christmas… 

I forgot to take pictures! But, I want to thank the beautiful and fun-loving families that opened up their home and hearts for me! Pablo's Mom & Dad, his 2 sisters and their husbands and of course, the sobrinos. Suzy and her husband hosted us at their beautiful home, a little outside of the city where we ate, laughed and played with all the new presents! I brought homemade truffles: chocolate-orange liquor, coconut-chocolate, honey dates with nuts (raw) to share and I think they liked 'em… 

A Chilean Christmas goes something like this… 

• We celebrate on the 24th with dinner, presents and family 

• Dinner is between 10PM - midnight! Our was "early" this year but it wasn't before 10PM

• MY FAVORITE: Kids go "searching" for el viejito pascuero (Santa Claus) in the neighborhood. We go searching, on foot and by skateboard, around the neighborhood while the busy elves of the house place presents under the tree. "I saw his beard!" "Over here, I heard a reindeer." Reindeer in the heat of Santiago… maybe Santa should get some llamas. 

• The 25th is the day of rest. No one does ANYTHING all day. So of course, I hosted a BBQ at the house with my new Colorado friends, German friend, my Chilean sister Andrea,  a few folks of the house and my Chilean main squeeze, Pablo. 

Pablo was a little jealous because his family went out of their way and gave me presents! That was so unexpected and so sweet. Despite being thousands of miles from my family, I felt loved, shared the joy of the day with others and ate well.