While traveling long-term, it’s so important to keep some consistency with traditions. We’ve been able to do this with two little traditions here in Chile. The first is shopping for children listed on an angel tree. The kids always love picking children their own age so that they can choose gifts and items they themself […]

Thursday night the kids had the opportunity to sing at the Vitacura Christmas tree lighting with their choir. They performed with Cecilia Echenique, a Chilean recording artist. My heart melted as they sang the Christmas carols they had learned in Spanish. You could tell by their faces they were proud and excited while they sang. […]

I adore the holiday season. Christmas carols in November, fresh cut Christmas trees, and driving to look at Christmas lights bring me such happiness. A fire in the fire place with just the glow from the Christmas lights is my ultimate happy place. Chile doesn’t do real trees, and I wasn’t going to buy a […]

Before we left for Chile, I searched many expat forums looking for suggestions on what to bring from abroad. The number one suggestion was any over the counter medication that we might take. So I purchased, Tylenol, Vicks vapor rub, Benadryl, NyQuil, and the kids equivalents and hoped we wouldn’t need them. They have some […]

At least twice a week I vacuum, dust, and wet mop the floors of our rental house in Santiago. We have a strict “no shoes in the house” policy mostly due to the dog poop everywhere in the city but also because of the black dust. This black dust, dirt, pollution, (?) is everywhere. I […]

On Wednesday afternoons, Wilson has skateboard class for two hours at the park. Jane and I walk him down to the park, make sure class gets underway, and then go for a run/rollerblade/jog together. Sometimes we listen to a podcast, sharing the ear pods. We both love “How I built this.” Mostly we just talk. […]

Wilson adores salsa. There aren’t any good options that we’ve come across in the grocery stores here, so I decided to teach him to cook his favorite snack, salsa, and make his favorite drink, lemonade. We used a very basic recipe. Tomatoes, purple onion, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper, lime juice and a jalapeno. However, […]

We had been discussing a beach trip. When the kids had a recent Saturday off from choir, we decided to jump on the opportunity and make the hour and a half drive. Since we doubted we would be swimming in the Pacific, I wanted an activity involved so made our destination the Pablo Neruda House […]