Happy Holidays from Abroad - an overdue blog post

No crazy holiday shopping. No family arguments. No awkward pleasantries at your hometown bar. No early mornings after Black Wednesday making mashed potatoes in a hot kitchen sweating out your night.

Sounds excellent, doesn't it?

Trying to avoid sounding like a Christmas movie such as Christmas with the Kranks (terrible) or Four Christmas (love), skipping the holidays isn't as cracked up as it sounds.

I miss my 4 F's - Family, friends, food, and football - and not being back home is tough. Sure, I tried re-creating my favorite holiday in Santiago, Chile (see my delicious meal below). Giving my frozen turkey a water bath every 30 minutes starting at 6 AM for 6 straight hours and then watching football on a pixelated laptop screen just to have Thanksgiving abroad. Call me crazy, but it didn't have the same allure as home.

Christmas in Buenos Aires we binged watched holiday movies from Home Alone 2 to Die Hard. It was great!

My mom makes this delicious lasagna every year. It's freaking awesome. So in an attempt to emulate this Christmas miracle, I bought fresh ravioli and thick pasta noodles. As good as it tasted, it was not the same.

I still don’t miss the cold weather or snow; you can keep that. But being away for the first time really made this Scrooge miss the holidays with family and friends.