Christmas in Brasil

If you have browsed through my blog entries, you might have found the one I wrote last Christmas when Camillo and I visited Gramado in Southern Brasil.

For me that trip ranks very high on the list of places we have spent Christmas week.

This small town, south of Port Alegre, celebrates Christmas in a very big hearted way. Every street is strung with lights, every shop window is decorated to catch the eye. There is every version of handcrafted Santa that one can possibly imagine. The City Park outside of the city center hosts a Santa's workshop where you have opportunity to visit Santa's helpers' dormitory and Santa's house with his private stash of toys from Christmases past.

And the best, the very best is the Cathedral with its high steeple, brightly lit, and the hand carved Nativity. This is Christmas the way it should be celebrated. With the intent by their family to give pleasure, to be shared with your family.

Merry Christmas
Ginger and Camillo

Back in Friburgo

From travel to Arizona, shopping, doctors appointments, more shopping, lunching with friends, seeing my grandaughter play volleyball and her dance team dance at the girls basketball games, to cooking, cooking, cooking the Thanksgiving dinner and the final running non-stop through the last weekend in Houston, this two month trip to the USA went by much too quickly.

Marissa's dance team

Making Bread for Thanksgiving



Homemade breakfast cinnamon rolls

Our trip to the Museum of Natural Science that I wrote about in my last entry did not go as expected. Luisa did not join us - she was feeling peaked. The grandsons had seen the first show and immediately tried talking me out of this one. Marissa and I were not totally convinced that we wanted to see real bodies preserved or otherwise. So we did a re-run through the museum, including the display of gems and minerals (I love this part) then we went to two different Planetarium shows and then to lunch. We enjoyed ourselves totally.

While in Houston I also managed to take a photography class and am now all excited about taking 'narative' photos. let me know if you notice any difference in the photos posted.

Now home again in Friburgo, it looks like the end of year months will go by even faster. The first weekend back (is it less than a week ago I returned?) we had our annual December "thank goodness its spring" churrasco. We have gained two new friends this year, both Italians, so Camillo has compatriots to enjoy the wine cellar with. At this year's churrasco there were about 10 more eaters than on our list, I never understand how this happens. Nobody seemed to mind (but me of course) that we ran out of potato salad and coleslaw early on and had only meat and chocolate cake to help them through the afternoon. The food was very good by the way.
On Sunday we went to Creamery Geneve to buy goats cheese and have lunch. the drive on the Teresopolis/Friburgo road was exceptional after our weeks and weeks of rain.

back in Houston and Thanksgiving

It is apparent to all that follow NotAMissionary, that when I am in the States visiting family I don't write very often in the blog. I find that I don't take pictures the way I do when traveling in other countries either. Maybe it is that nothing is really new or a challenge when I am here. When I am in Brazil or traveling in other countries most of what I see is fresh, mysterious or in contrast to what I know so well. Also, when in the States the tempo of my day is much different. I leave my daughter's home at 7am - when in Brazil we are barely starting our day at 8am let alone up dressed and full of coffee at 7 - first thing I take Patty to work so that I can have her car for the day. Then I exercise, shop, visit, go to movies, out to lunch, vote, go to see doctors, order glasses, go out to lunch some more and shop some more. Until 4:30pm when I pick Pat back up at her office. Then there is cooking dinner, talking, and other activities like volleyball games that I have written about in prior blogs and the day ends at 9 pm here. In Rio at 9pm we would just be going out to dinner

And now we are planning our Thanksgiving dinner. This annual pilgrimage into American tradition is why I try to come back to the States at this time of year. This one day in America represents the best of who we are. Even if the story is told to tell only the good side of our participation in the first Thanksgiving feast, the tradition of a dinner where Friends and family gather to celebrate another year and to give thanks for all we have is a good part of America.
This year will not be an exception - I will cook the traditional stuffed turkey with fix'ns. There will also be a ham for anyone who doesn't really care for turkey, whipped potatoes with gravy, squash, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows (I don't like sweet potatoes made this way, but is Patty's favorite so stays on the menu.) home made rolls and this year homemade cranberry sauce. And to top it all off pumpkin and pecan pies.

I know, I know this is gluttony, it is big in the greatest of American BIGS. But everything is so good.

This weekend we went shopping for the ham and turkey - can't wait until the last minute because you end up with something you don't want - so we went and fought the Sunday shoppers (the biggest grocery shopping day in the USA) You can't imagine the mess. It was reminiscent of shopping at Zona Zul in Ipanema. Narrow isles, big shopping carts, people blocking the isle while the deciding on one of too many options, and lines, lines, lines. But we completed our mission and are ready to start the feast.

? Can there be this many different cheeses?? How to decide?

Road Trip - Arizona II

After picking up my sister in Flagstaff, we drove my rented, bright-red Dodge Charger to Phoenix. I don't know if you are supposed to be able to pick your rental car but I generally say "I need enough power to make it up the black canyon highway" and they'll give me a car with reassurances that it will 'make it with ease'. I have learned (finally) that the people at the rental counter really don't listen, or don't care what your issues are, they just pass you down the line. This big, bulky super-duper charger had no GRIT when in competition for road with the big semis. If you travel in the western USA rent a foreign car - American cars Drink gasoline for breakfast with no reserve energy for when it is needed on the steep grades.

But back to my road trip.

I found that I have a really large family in Arizona. Oh, I knew they were there but have not spent time exploring who they are, too keeping in touch, of feeling that I belong with them. Speaking with each of the children, enjoying their enjoyment of the occasion.

I go often to visit my mother but basically stay in Prescott for the week. With Candy along - Candy who remembers everyone and all the streets where they live - urging us along, Mom and I saw my sister Nancy and her two children and their 4 children. I can imagine that Mom's great-grand children will remember the jokes, the laughter - the gathering for lunch and dinner of a family they had never met.

Mom, Candy and I drove into Phoenix proper to see my Aunt Carol - Mom's
only living sibling, and Aunt Rosa her one remaining sister-in-law. I haven't seen them since the mid 70's when I lived in Phoenix with my small children. This trip was truly a trip home. (Aren't they all beautiful?)

Road Trip - Arizona

I have written before about being in Arizona (USA) to visit my mother. I come - always once a year and sometimes like this year, I make it for two visits. I love Arizona. I lived here as a child and young a teen and it often feels more like home than Michigan where I was born, Houston where I lived for 30 years or Brazil where I have been for nearly 6 years. Arizona at first glance seems barren, dry and colorless (especially if I compare it to Brazil), but as you travel through the state the seeming barren landscape becomes a land of diverse Eco-systems, with a pallet of muted colors that soothes, calms. This effect may be only for me because of the 'home again' aspect of travel in Arizona, but I think it is the quietness of the colors and the heat of the sun that warms and calms the spirit.

I flew into Phoenix and drove to Prescott on Monday. Tuesday I collected my mother early and together we drove to Flagstaff to pick up my older sister, Candy. She came across country from Michigan via Amtrak to join us for a week. While Mom and I waited for her arrival, we drove even further north. Taking highway 89 north out of Flagstaff with the intended destination - Page at the damn for Lake Powell in the extreme North East corner of Arizona. Highway 89, right after leaving Flagstaff, goes through miles of what appears to be worn down, eroded volcanic ash fields. Sculpted by wind and rain these miles of gray, light pink and purple leave you feeling as though you have left this planet. Any geologist that reads this can correct me if they want - I'll publish any comments - but the look of the landscape was to me of an ancient land. About 35 miles from Page, I saw a sign - 89A to north rim Grand Canyon - I made a last minute, executive decision to go that direction and made a very quick left-hand turn onto the well-maintained, two lane highway, that winds and dips, curving around a long stretch of red cliffs - the road was long the scenery exquisite
To tell the truth we stopped and took photos and then went on, not realizing that we were ON THE NORTH RIM. We ended up almost at the Utah border before realizing that we should turn around and make our way back to Flagstaff.

first day home -

I arrived in Houston on Friday morning - 5:20am) but really didn't get into 'I am at home mode' until Saturday morning. Patty (my daughter) and I got up at 6:30 to take Marissa to her school to catch the team bus and then we drove into northwest Houston to watch her volley ball (Volie) tournament. This is her first year on a team (7Th grade) and from what I could see really enjoying it. The girls played 4 games!. Unlike most of the teams they played, there were only 7 of them so no rotations out to rest. My favorite and as far as I am concerned the best player is number 44 - in the very least she is the most beautiful.... (she did not pay me to write this - it is truly how I feel.) All the players improved their serves before our very eyes. As a team they have some work to do on understanding that while the ball is in play you keep trying to hit it back across the net - there were a few 'where did it go?" expressions and boy did we all (the parents watching) have fun with that. By the way they won 1, lost 1, and tied 2 - came in 3rd out of five teams - I would say that was excellent for a first season.