I love food. Eating it, cooking it, looking at it..that’s why holidays are great, because they always consist of eating way too much good food.

Tomas and Luna love food too, they are patiently waiting at the dinner table. Well Tomas is..Lunas got the lazer beam eyes going on.

To start off the end of the year holidays, we got to celebrate my moms birthday. As I like to do for my birthday, I made sure it was her birthday week, not just a single day. To start off the bang we had an amazing lunch at a restaurant just one block down from our house.  Cafe Rivas.

Right when we sat down the waitress- who was italian, spoke perfect spanish, and even spoke some english to me, told us the 3 lunch options for the day. There was no menu, which to me is a great sign, meaning they make new things every day, fresh. Oh man was I right. The lunch options were a crispy white fish with a side of broccoli mashed potatoes (don’t know if there were even potatoes in there, more like a puré) and sprouts. Second was a chicken milanesa (a lightly battered fried thin meat) with a side I forget, and the third was an amazing salad with arugula, peaches, blue cheese, prosciutto, and toasted almonds. All of these dished had the option of a glass of wine on the side for only and extra 20 pesos (about $1.25) Needless to say they all sounded amazing. My mom ordered the fish, I the salad, and we decided to share since they both sounded intriguingly good. While waiting she brought us some bread and a type of aioli to snack.

I must say this restaurant takes the cake for being one of my new favorites. The food was amazing. We ate it all, every last bite. Wiped the plates clean with the left over bread. And bonus, it was not even that expensive! For everything together it came to about $250 pesos, or $20. A restaurant this fancy in the US would of been well over $30 per person..this was only $10 each.

After eating the delectable light lunch, we went back home and relaxed until that night, where we met up with my moms dad, his wife, and her boyfriend Pedro for dinner. We went to a large restaurant near their house that had a huge ceiling, the whole place was painted red, and was packed! Luckily my grandparents got there before us so we did not have to wait for a table at all, just breezed past the overflowing line out the door.

The food took forever to come, since there were so many people, but when it did, I was bewildered by the amount of food on my plate. I ordered the thin ribs in the pic above, and there were 3 huge slabs on the plate! Plus a pile of french fries and mashed squash (which was actually really good.) No way anyone could eat that much in one sitting. Benefit, I had a ton of leftovers for the next couple of days. As you can see above also there  were paper tablecloths and crayons..which leads to me doodling the whole dinner. That is the outcome. Haha messy but fun. After dinner we walked to Freddo which is one of the best ice cream places in Argentina (they are everywhere like Starbucks.) I somehow managed to eat the ice cream even though I was stuffed from dinner. Somehow..

The next night my mom and I decided to celebrate at dinner just the two of us. We went to a cute little restart down the street called Céline. We wanted to go there because they have a rooftop patio with a magical ambiance. Twinkling lights, calm sea blue paint, plants everywhere. This was the highlight of the night. The food wasn’t as great, but still fancy. My mom got a duck, paté plate with yummy bread, and I got pear and brie ravioli with a creamed spinach sauce. For dessert a lemon tart. This time dinner was more expensive and not as good, but we still had a great time.

After the fun of celebrating for the birthday girl, came christmas. Now christmas here is not in a white wonder land, it’s in a hot humid hell. Haha just kidding, but it is really hot here during the summer. Also they celebrate on Christmas eve rather than morning. So my Mom, Pedro and I all went to my grandmas the night of the 24th to celebrate. We had a nice steak dinner outside, watched the fireworks from all the nearby homes, and opened gifts at midnight. I really do enjoy making/giving gifts. This year I decided to make my grandma a first aid gift box (because she is always hurting herself,) and Pedro a coffee kit. In his I made my own Mocha Chip Biscotti, along with a chocolate liqueur, a sugar/cinnamon mix, and some chocolate covered raisins and peanuts. I painted both of their boxes myself. I was quite pleased with the outcome. I made another coffee box for my grandpa, who we saw the following night. 

I got my mom a black vest and a purple fleece sweater from the North Face, a red hat, some face cream, and a cloth case for her phone. I got some great gifts as well including a pair of black lace shorts, two pairs of sunglasses, really cool flash tattoos, underwear, a white lace shirt, and some sneakers (where one was size 5 1/2 and one was 7.) Oh and I’m going to Coldplay! Concert in March. (Thanks dad <3) I am so thankful for all the gifts and being around the great people who gave them to me.

After Christmas we traveled to a small beach town called Villa Gessel, which was about a 4 hour drive from BA. I got to stay for 5 days, staying at a “family” acquaintances apartment, which was very nice of her. The time while staying at Gessel, I got to lay on the beach (Where I got completely sunburnt), did some shopping, and celebrated new years at my mom’s boyfriends sisters restaurant-Windy. Confusing I know. So we had the whole place to ourselves, with a group of about 10 of us. Ate food, drank, and danced all night until 5 in the morning. 

One of the days I got to travel to the town over called Carilo. Absolutely adorable town that is covered by trees, sand everywhere, and amazing homes. Super fucking expensive place to live and shop, but fun to visit for the day. Walked around the outdoor shopping center for a bit, had some pizza, then headed to the beach until 6 in the afternoon. 

In the photo above we have a store that sells that liquid fragrance that make your house smell good with the wooden sticks, A north face -where I used to work for a year so I had to take a picture. A bakery that looked like it had amazing stuff, and a shop with giant gnomes crawling out the windows haha. I was very impressed with this town, and if I ever become rich, I want to go back.

Well that concludes my life for the year of 2015. Time for 2016 which is going to be an amazing year. For two reasons. One 16 is my favorite number, and two; ever since I was little I’ve had this feeling that age 23 is going to be the best year of my life. Well I turn 23 this year in June. So I have some high expectations ahead, and will keep you posted on proof that I was right.

Paz