Yes, I spent pretty much every major holiday at my friend’s house this year.   I already wrote about Halloween…so now I’m going to tell you about Christmas.

For Christmas, I had no idea that in Colombia they don’t have Santa Clause.  They think the idea of a fat dude, in red footy-pajamas, riding magical flying quadrupeds,  and free-falling down chimneys to eat our food and leave us gifts, is silly.  Instead – they believe Baby Jesus brings you presents.

They also don’t have gigantic evergreens indoors…at the most they put a small tree outside with lights.  Blinky lights.

Medellin LOVES their blinky lights.  On the tree, on the balcony, over the streets.  (Its actually really cool looking)  And the blinky lights all blink at different speeds (even on the same patio), so its all twinkly and stuff all night.  I love it.

So this Christmas, being my first Christmas ever out of the USA, I decided to teach my friend how to cook for Christmas (he wanted to learn, and I love to teach).  But instead of making traditional American turkey and stuffing, and fish, and the whole shebang…or well, I’m still not sure what traditional Medellin Christmas dinner is. 

(Pretty much what every other meal is here, fried meat, with fried plantains, beans, rice, and a tiny salad…just to be healthy.) 

There seemed to be some outdoor, impromptu fire pits, and lots of milk-based gelatinous desserts, some full of large chunks of wood (aka. cinnamon bark) and called (deceptively) Natilla…

(not to be confused with the ever so decadent chocolate hazelnut spread Nutella.)  Natilla is pretty good, if you don’t mind the day old pudding texture.  (Its like harder pudding….which the fact that I ate it and liked it shows how good it is considering my aversion to slimy foods.  I don’t even like Jell-O really.)

No this Christmas we had homemade meat spaghetti sauce and apple pie.  Yes, we went to the La Minorista (the indoor farmer’s market), and came back to spend hours slaving over the stove making homemade meat sauce.  Sauce with pork, and sausage, and a ridiculous amount of basil and fresh herbs. 

There was also my favourite holiday dish ever.. APPLE PIE  (ok, so I’ll make up a holiday if it means I get to have apple pie).

It is so incredibly American..but I love apple pie and actually get quite upset if it is not made for every holiday.  So I decided to make homemade apple pie (homemade the crust and all).  And teach my friend how to peel apples for his first time.

My friend never had peeled apples, let alone with a knife, yet this kid has some crazy savant knife skills. 

HE ACTUALLY GOT A WHOLE APPLE PEELED IN ONE PIECE! 

(I’ve been peeling apples for years and have only done that like twice!)

It was the most non-Colombian-American traditional Christmas I think either of us ever had, but I had so much fun being in another country, learning about Baby Jesus vs. Santa Clause

( I really thought Santa was universal, and I’m still pretty sure he’d win in a fight against baby Jesus),

and cooking all day in the kitchen to have, well, just really yummy dinner!

This was the apple pie the next day.  We devoured it.  Apple pie is not just great for holidays…cold apple pie also makes a delicious breakfast (its fruit, its healthy…as healthy as any other food in Medellin), and lunch, and midday snack….

I loved being in Medellin for Christmas, and getting to celebrate it with my friend and his family.   I want to spend more holidays in other countries to see how else these holidays are celebrated.

CHEERS!

Fireworks were shot off from the back of the pool

Sometimes my job as a stagehand/rigger has its perks…like getting to watch the fireworks for free at Mandalay Bay Casino’s Pool! (and in return –had to run spotlight for a horrible reggae band from Alabama..but you take the good with the bad).

Setting up fireworks in the Mandalay Bay Pool

Here they are setting up the fireworks.  The fireworks were set up on barges in the wave pool, and on each side.

Checking on the fireworks set-up.

They started the show with a bang, and playing a whole bunch of USA rock and rockish-country songs (like Born In The USA, American Woman, some other country songs everyone; but me, seemed to know).  Its quite a departure for someone like me; that grew up in Boston, and still thinks it kind of sacrilegious to have any music other than the Boston Pops playing to the fireworks…but I still got into it after my initial shock.

4th of July firework show at Mandalay Bay Pool

The fireworks were quite beautiful, and loud, and sparkly, and continuos! Really, just massive amounts of fireworks for 12 minutes straight.  But this is Vegas; so the whole show is pretty much a giant finale to me (i except for the one time I actually braved the traffic to see the real show in Boston, im used to small townie fireworks…ones almost no bigger than the $700 kits you can buy in the store).  So I thought this was a pretty big show.

Fireworks exploding from the back of the pool at Mandalay Bay Casino

It is really cool to be able to see the fireworks actually get set off; rather than being so far away you don’t see them until they blow up in the sky.  I loved watching them come out of the cannons and leave trails all the way up till they exploded!

Crowd watches the fireworks from the "beach" at Mandalay Bay Pool

It could have also been because I was watching this from my spot tower about 30ft in the air and 100yards away from where they were shooting them off.

You can see how close the crowd is to the firework barges. Im just sad that I didn’t get to see the fireworks set a tree on fire this year (it happened a couple years ago)

The fireworks finale at Mandalay Bay. It was a great show!

And this is the finale.  It was more red, white, and blue than in this photo (they shutter delay to show the trails make it look more pink, off-white, and purple – still a cool color combination).

So for all of you Americans who aren’t in America, or others who don’t celebrate the 4th of July (and why would you celebrate our Independence Day? That would be rather silly)…I hope you enjoyed my little slice of Mandalay Bay’s Fourth of July Fireworks Show.

And for all my British readers out there : HAHAHAHA, WE WON!

Cheers!