I still don't know how we managed to pull it off, but we had a decent Christmas celebration this year. It wasn't easy, though. The number of Covid cases, primarily as a result of Omicron, spiked tremendously in December.
- On Thursday, December 16, 2021, there were 5,301 Cases Reported nationwide, 674 of which were in Cordoba province.
- On Wednesday, December 22, 2021, there were 11,121 cases reported nationwide, 2,875 of which were in Cordoba province.
The numbers did go down a bit during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day because there were fewer people getting tested on those days. But the numbers soared afterwards.
- On Tuesday, December 28, 2021, there were 33,902 cases reported nationwide, 8,520 of which were in Cordoba province.
Of course, as expected, the increase rate of infections did not scare the general population into doing any of the things that would help keep everyone safe like:
- Wearing masks
- Covering their mouths when they cough
- Respecting social distancing rules.
Regardless, our Christmas was awesome for a number of reasons. For starters, we had our first guest over since the pandemic. And I don't think the hubs and I realized just how much we missed having people over.
| Our friend, the hubs, and I playing games on our phones |
The only thing better than the company, was the food. We had originally planned on making a baked ham like we had in previous holidays, but the Argentine summer (which is in December) was too intense. So turning the oven on was not a viable option. So instead, we ordered food from some of our favorite places like Xiongmao, which offers some of the best Chinese food in Cordoba City (in our opinion). We also ordered 8 slices of pepperoni and 8 slices of cheese pizza from Pibi Guemes. But this almost didn't happen.
You see, we reached out to all the places we wanted to order food from a few days earlier to see if they would be open on the 24th or even the 23rd. But Pibi Guemes was the only restaurant that hadn't gotten back to us.
So, after bugging them over and over again on Instagram and WhatsApp, they finally told me that they were closed due to a possible Covid outbreak among their ranks. Luckily, they informed us the next day that they had tested negative, and we were able to order the pizza in time for Christmas Eve.
| Chicken and steak fried rice from Xiongmao |
| Pepperoni and cheese pizza from Pibi Guemes |
| Arabian Empanadas |
Most of you may not know this, but I have an Armenian heritage from my mother's side, and she was kind enough to make the dish below and some Arabian empanadas. The first dish was made with pureed peas, chives, black olives and red peppers. But don't ask me to spell out or even pronounce the name of the dish because even I have a hard time with it. All I can say is that it was cool, refreshing and went great with the Arabian empanadas.
For dessert, we went the lazy route once again and ordered ourselves a couple of Gingerbread men from Backerhaus, as well as a Lemon cake. As far as the taste was concerned, neither of these items were as sweet as we expected them to be. But I guess they were aesthetically pleasing.
We also ordered 12 mini-cinnamon rolls from Canerolls, which the hubs and I arranged in the form of a tree, and they were delicious. Not that I'm surprised because Canerolls has always managed to pull through for us and we love them for that.
But with so much sugar, I was so glad that our friend brought over a bunch of salty snacks for us to munch on while we played games and talked the night away.
Then around midnight, we officially welcomed Christmas with a couple of alcoholic strawberry smoothies.
Eventually, the night came to an end and we had to say goodbye to our friend. But we got to enjoy a couple of Canepops on Christmas morning, courtesy of Canerolls. I know what you're thinking. What the **** are Canepops? They are for all intents and purposes, Pop Tarts.
We were so happy when Canerolls added these to their menu because you won't find Pop Tarts anywhere in Argentina. This means that the hubs and I haven't eaten one in almost ten years. So as you can imagine, our eyes were flooded with tears when we bit into our Canepops.
All in all, our Omicron Christmas wasn't too bad. In fact, we had been getting into the spirit of things early on in the month by decorating our tree and by playing Frosty on the Shelfy. Think of it as Elf on the Shelf. Since we didn't have an elf, we compromised with Frosty.
We also watched a holiday themed movie every day. Some of the films were holiday favorites from the past like "Home Alone." But there were some surprising new favorites too like:
- Santa's Slay (Not new, new, but new to us)
- A Clusterfunke Christmas
- Love Hard
- Single All the Way
- The Bitch Who Stole Christmas
Also, there was the 5-episode holiday series "With Love," which we highly recommend.
Now that Christmas 2021 is in the rear view mirror, it's time for us to start figuring out the menu for New Year's Eve. Spoiler alert! We won't be cooking on this final holiday of 2021 either.
