Patti

barely made it out of Minnesota yesterday due to the blizzard. But by the time she arrived in NY, the weather was beautiful. She is visiting NY with her two daughters and they are enjoying many of the Christmas attractions and pastimes. Tonight, Patti and her daughters will be going to see the Radio City Rockettes and will stop by to admire the famous Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas windows.

Patti's favorite carol and Christmas songs are O Little Town of Bethlehem and I'll Be Home for Christmas. Ironically, Patti will be spending this Christmas at her home away from home in Rio Grande, Texas. Even though beautiful MN is where her life-long "home" is, Patti and her husband started to spend winters in Rio Grande, Texas, because her husband could no longer bear the fierce winters in MN. This will be their second winter there. They chose Texas because they had gone to school in Austin and still have close friends there.

Patti planned this NY trip in March but decided to make a few changes at the last minute. While her daughters will stay in NY for a few more days, Patti decided to take up her friends' offer to join them on a cruise. So tomorrow she's headed to sunny Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Christmas in the south must make for a completely different experience, similar to Christmases in South America when we celebrated the holidays in the midst of the summer. Yesterday's episode of ABC's "Modern Family" portrayed how a modern family incorporates and adapts to the changing traditions. The head of the family, Jay, has recently re-married. His new wife, Gloria, is a hot Colombian divorcee who is about the same age as his grown daughter. Jay's step-son with Gloria is the same age as his grandkids. In addition, Jay has a grown gay son who has just adopted an Asian baby with his partner. It makes for some fun family dynamics. One of the new traditions that this modern family was incorporating to the celebrations were fireworks, courtesy of the Colombian influence.

We had those fireworks in Argentina too. I'm not sure whether it was an Argentinian tradition or the tradition of a Korean family living in Argentina, but my parents would always gift a bottle of Sidra (sparkly cider) and a Pan Dulce (dried fruits cake) to all our closest neighbors and friends on the day before Christmas. At midnight, we would watch the midnight mass on TV and then head outside to admire the fireworks, which in retrospect were very modest. At the time, my brother and I could only "dream of a white Christmas." Same holidays but just so many different ways to celebrate them.