Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Christmas south of the Equator

As we mentioned before, if there is anything in Brazil that reminds us of North America it's the mall. We were hoping to maintain one of our Christmas traditions of eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve. "No problem" we thought. After all, this city is enormous. Surely we'll have no problem finding a Chinese food restaurant open on Christmas Eve. However, it was not to be. In Brazil the real celebration begins BEFORE the actual holiday does. Absolutely NOTHING was open on Christmas Eve--all day, not just after 5:00 PM. However, it shocked us to see that about 50% of businesses were open for business by noon on Christmas Day. So while we didn't get our Chinese food, we did get some nice pictures of the malls which were beautifully decorated and lit up despite the fact that the parking lots were empty. This mall - Interlar is where we bought our sofa.
This picture is of the inside of a different mall. It's from a few days earlier, but it gives a nice idea of the seriousness of the season at the malls. If you were here you'd be very surprised that the malls are about the only place that you see good Christmas decorations. There is no place we know of where you can go and admire the decorations other than the mall. Of course, Sponge Bob isn't exactly our idea of the "true spirit of Christmas." But it was fun, nonetheless.
Ah, Christmas Day! We have lots of pictures of the kids opening presents, but I chose this picture because there just aren't a lot of pictures of Cary on this blog and he got the most Brazilian gifts--a Guia (road map) of Sao Paulo and this tennis racquet. Only it's not a tennis racquet. It's a mosquito zapper! You press a button on the handle which sends a strong electric current through the wires. Then you swat at a mosquito and if you hit him, he gets electrocuted. They actually sizzle and smoke! Sweet revenge, considering that we get bitten as much as five times per night due to the ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes here.


Cary Sawatsky posted this message at 8:25 p.m..