Traditionally, Christmas Day is quiet here, as we celebrate Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, and this year was no exception. What was different, though, was our location!

After our late night, we had a lazy morning, and then went down to the beach. It wasn’t quite as hot and sunny as it was yesterday, but that was fine because we didn’t go to swim or sunbathe today — we went to drink champagne! And here we are, caught in the act!

While the others went for a walk, I took the chance to do a little sketch of sea and sand.

We had lunch at a little beach restaurant, but we kept it light because tonight we’re having a traditional Argentine asado. I’ll take photos of that as it happens, so stay tuned!

If you are in a country that celebrates the holiday today rather than yesterday, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope you are having a great day.

We certainly took advantage of our summer Christmas Eve! It started in Pinamar, as I described in the previous post, but then progressed to the beach back at Costa Esmeralda. Cecilia is always first to plunge into the ocean, and this time Luis was happy to join her.

Later in the day, we had our lovely dinner, cooked jointly by Luis and Venetia, and then opened the gifts at midnight according to Argentine tradition.

Luis’s paella was a thing of beauty! It made me wish I liked seafood, but unfortunately I don’t. So Venetia made a lovely pasta dish just for me — sorry I had started eating it before I remembered to take the photograph!

This is the group minus Luis, who took the photo. As you can see, we have finished our meal, except for the traditional Pan Dulce, which was also delicious. Of course it was all washed down with copious amounts of Malbec and champagne! Joaquin and Corinna, Cecilia’s son and his girlfriend, got engaged the other day, so that gave us one more thing to drink to!

Here are a few gift opening shots. The thing dangling from my ear is a blingy mask that Cecilia gave me!

Feliz Navidad everybody!