Feliz Natal de Brasil

Feliz Natal! Our StalinBenester readers might be wondering what country we've chosen for our annual international holiday tradition. This year, we decided to leave Europe and looked across the Atlantic to Brazil, a country that's embarking on summer just as our winter gets going. Nothing wrong with a little wishful thinking, right?

For Owen's first Christmas, we'll enjoy watching him get a visit from Papai Noel, but it probably won't be like in Rio, where Papai Noel arrives by helicopter to a stadium filled with children. Maybe we will stage our own Auto de Natal, an outdoor Christmas play held in Rio, or dance to the bossa nova. And we'll have to put up a presepio, or nativity scene, as part of our decorations.

I'll have to do a little more research to find the best foods for our Brazilian meal. The book I got from the library about Christmas in Brazil suggests making an array of smoked meats, but I'm not sure I want to handle the beef tongue or pig's foot as suggested in the recipe. Maybe we should just go out to Samba, a Brazilian steakhouse in Madison, or I can make a tenderloin again like I did last year.

Last year, we celebrated Austria by watching "The Sound of Music," so any ideas for getting the essence of Brazil? ("City of God" was too violent and depressing, so I'm not sure I want to watch that again, especially for Christmas. "Blame it on Rio"? Maybe we should watch some old World Cup videos of Pele.)