Dec. 7, 2023: La Noche de las Velitas

One very Colombian Christmas tradition is celebrating La Noche de las Velitas. Every December 7th, every family goes out and lights candles. The stores all sell lanterns and candles beforehand, and sometimes you see fake candles in windows. And there's whole towns that are lit up beautifully for it that people travel to to go see. But mostly families go to parks to light them and sing Christmas carols.  

The nativity in our townhouse complex.

The little boys insisted on taking photos here.

Anyway, we didn't know what we were doing really, but I'll take any excuse to light a fire. 
Other families at the park.

I think it's supposed to be lighting the way from Mary and Joseph to get to Bethlehem.

It was fun but I wish Leo had been with us.

The kids lit them again when we got home.  

And the nativity at the park we always go to.

Swimming Lessons

 After school ended in the middle of November, I signed the three youngest boys up for swim lessons for three weeks.  I really wanted Jubal and Efraim to get better, and they did, so that was good.  Nicolas was better than the class (they had class all at once all together), so he just mostly had to swim laps.

The boys insisted I take videos of them on the last day of swimming lessons.  So here they are.  It was kind of nice to be able to walk with the boys every day to and from their lessons, but Jubal and Nicolas were annoyed because I always brought books for them to read during Efraim's lesson.

20th Anniversary at EL Chato!!!

Celebrated 20 years together!!! We went to El Chato for a 13 course meal--probably for the one and only time in our lives for a meal like this. El Chato was rated, as of the night we went, the 2nd best restaurant in Latin America and #33 in the world. It was delicious! Kind of random, but they served different drinks with different courses and I think they were my favorite part. The cuisine is Colombian (so arepas, etc) and different courses featured different parts of Colombia, so one course was all food from the Amazon, and one course was from the Pacific Coast, etc. The only thing we didn't like was the very last dessert which was a white chocolate tart with coca leaves on it. Coca leaves (which yes, I've had coca leaves/tea before in Peru) are blech, and white chocolate is also gross, so there was no redeeming that course. But seriously, the rest was so good! And they gave us free wine for our annivesary and were so confused that we don't drink, but they awkwardly changed it out for another yummy fruit drink which was nice. (We had ordered the without alcohol dinner option but I guess we're still weird.) I feel lucky every day to be married to the love of my life who's always willing to experience new things with me!

This was the free fruit juice they gave us at the end since it was our anniversary, which was so delicious.

They actually gave us very clear directions with each course on how to eat it because our obliviousness apparently just radiated off us.

This was the yucky coca and white chocolate dessert.

This was the Lulo with meringue dessert. This was tasty. 

Leo's favorite course, and yes, I realize I have no future as a food photographer. This was the pork ribeye course.

I like how the restaurant was decorated.

All the chefs listening as the top 5 resturants in Latin America were announced. They had been #5, but moved up to #2.  Everyone was so excited!

This one looked weird, (I mean that dark brown sauce) but it was good.  But I don't know what course it was.  

Leo is so handsome!  I'm so very lucky.

It was kind of neat how you could see into the kitchen too. 

I think this was the lobster tail.

And beef heart and arepa.

The tamales with caviar.

I think this was the Portobello with tamarind and sea snail. It was one of my favorites anyway.

I think this was the green mussel and casabeAn toast.

I think this was the Boronia? 

This was the sardine thing. 

The guava one. 

And this soup/broth was my absolute favorite couse--so, so delicious--but I don't see it on the menu.  So not sure what it was.  I know it doesn't look like I was enthusiatically trying everything and soaking it all up by my short little sentences about what the course was, but I really can't describe how things tasted, but I really was loving it!   Anyway, it definitely was an experience and the food and drinks were incredible.

Guatavita the Town

After seeing Laguna de Guatavita, we went to the town of Guatavita and had lunch.  Guatavita has a bull fighting ring and a long history of bullfighting.  

It was kind of weird because we were our own little group, the rest of the students and the teacher ate at one table and then my kids and I ate at another.  I felt like we were banished, but also it was kind of good. They're tired because we were up early to make it to the school by 7:30 AM.  

The food was okay, and the waiter and the teacher were surprised at how much we ordered and then the kids ate it ALL gone.  Which surprised them even more.

Taking photos with kids is sometimes so difficult!

Then we just ran around the touristy part of town for an hour or so.  Not long enough, my kids were not ready to go yet.

They were disappointed though because there's an upside down house right near there, (mostly an instagram photo op) and they really wanted to stop, and the group had planned on it, but after all the other students decided they didn't want to go and my kids were sad.

I mean, who would want to leave when you could be playing behind pillars?

I loved the frog!!

The town looks very scenic and very colonial, but really there's a reservoir nearby that flooded the original town and this one was built in the 1960s.

Seriously, much running and horsing around.  But Elena is gorgeous as always.

These random circle things DO look rather 1960ish.

The kids did not want to leave here either.  

It was a maze of circles to crawl through to get to different courtyards and roads. 

Good times!

I was going to get them a dessert too but then we had to leave so fast.  Sigh.

I like the minaret thingy.

And then riding the transmilenial home from the school.   

I love my kids!!!  

Isabel looking gorgeous too!!!