I am dreaming of a White Wine Christmas.

Bosom friends,

Have you all survived Christmas day?

Did you to stuff your faces with as much festive food as you could?
Did you manage to drain your holiday wine supply?

I for sure did.

This morning I woke up feeling just like the stuffed goose we had on Christmas day: deliciously fat.

I am well aware that one day of gorging on glorious food won't really have an effect on my waist line but I believe I consumed the same amount of calories allowed to a human being for a whole week.

In any case let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

On Christmas Eve hubby and I went to the afternoon performance of The Nutcracker. We were both desperately seeking some festive attitude.
I was very pleased with the effect the ballet had on us. We left the theater feeling cheery and jolly. For a moment I didn't want to set fire to some decorated palm trees. My need for snow and a working fire place got placated by the ones I saw on stage. On top of that, seeing all the families gathered together going to the ballet reminded me what a big Italian Christmas entails, so I got over myself even quicker.
As per usual I cried and sweat a great deal throughout the whole thing (you should know by now how I deal with my excitement...).

What was new for me was the theater itself and the people who attended the event.

First of all the Adrienne Arsht Center is a wonderful facility. Everything about it is grand and pretty.

It does not look like your average theater from the outside, you would actually think you are about to enter a futuristic church or something. The main structure is all made of glass, steel and concrete while the lines of the whole building are modern and striking. The whole of the Asrht Center looks like a huge soprano diva cleverly draped over and across Biscayne Blvd. How fitting!

The inside does not disappoint either. The whole thing makes you feel like you are about to board a space ship for your annual Christmas in outer space extravaganza.
What brought me back to reality was the fact that every single piece of that theater had been sponsored by private donations. On each and every piece of the structure (from the bricks paving the floor by the main entrance, to the staircases, to the toilet stools...) you could find the name of the patrons who donated money to the Arsht Center. The whole Jewish phone book of Miami.
It is actually amazing that such a major construction was funded by private individuals all together.
In Italy usually banks do that. Philanthropists hide their money in Switzerland.
The philanthropist and business leader Adrienne Arsht alone donated $30 million to the facility to  make it financially stable. In recognition for her gift the structure was renamed "The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County", or the Arsht Center for short. WOWZERS!
The Center was partly built on the grounds of a former Sears department store; it was an Art Deco building constructed in 1929. However, by 2001, the only surviving part of the original structure was a seven-story tower built by Sears, the space's successor. The department store space itself had been demolished. It was decided to preserve the tower and incorporate it into the new performing arts center.
I believe that was the first time in history that a shopping center left its space to a theater, and not the other way around. Even Gloria Estefan performed during its opening in 2006! Turn the Mall around, thank you for your donation.

Aerial view of the Arsht Center.

Foyer.

Sponsored porthole.

View from the 3rd tier level.

Glass facade from inside.

Ziff Ballet Opera House

Balconies.

The audience members were as alluring as the actual building, but for other reasons.

I saw a vast assortment of any kind of attire. Dress code: free for all.

We had the family of four with the girls dressed in holidays themed outfits (resembling young versions of Santa's wife) with their parents wearing what looked like their home sick ensembles.
We spotted an elderly couple who thought they were going to the annual Met Gala or elderly couple who had no idea where they were and why. We saw your usual lady who lunches in her new painful Prada heels and the evergreen the bigger the better lady who had one too many collagen injections done to her face (AKA the frog face effect).
Spotting the guests who came to that performance only because they had free tickets thrown their way was also very easy. They were drinking booze like they were storing it for winter and had very little theater etiquette.
By the way if you are planning to have a glass of bubbly or some gummy bears at the bar inside the Arsht Center make sure you have with you your Black Gold credit card. You can actually feed Angola for three months with the money you need to purchase a snack in there.
I found rather irritating that most of the patrons took their bloody good old time to sit down even after the third announcement (the show is about to start!) was made. They were very busy gallivanting with their acquaintances kissing away from cheek to cheek.
Also some found it appropriate to bring a cranky infant to the theater. Not cool. But what to do, it's the holidays and family outings are very important (still a 3 months old child at the opera house?!?).

Once the show started though, all of our worries washed away like stains treated with Oxiclean.
The magic of live theater took over and I found myself (yet again) with throbbing hands from the copious clapping.
The ensemble numbers were so precise they looked like they had been rehearsed by an engineer.
The soloists were just divine and the Sugar Plum Fairy made me wanna go home and wear a tutu pronto. It takes a Fairy to move a fairy.

My eyes filled up  with tears at the end of the first act during the Snow Flakes scene. It was actually snowing on stage (fake snow but who cares) and the whole thing was so engaging that I could have leaped out of my seat for the utter joy the performance was bringing me.

BRAVO!

BRAVA!

BRAVI!

The amazing Snow Flakes scene.

After such an exhausting performance I was in need of some proper Christmas-y food. STAT.

Luckily we were invited to spend Christmas Eve at our friend Holy Trinity's home.

It all started rather innocently with the idea of a lovely home made Christmas eve dinner. 

HT's sister and brother in law were visiting from Germany so they opted to have a very German traditional dinner, red cabbage included. It was the first supper of that kind for me and it was also the first piece of goose ever getting into my mouth. I didn't know what to expect from a very Dutch Christmas, all I knew was that we were not going to have sausages at all and I was told that my knowledge over Teutonic traditions was rather stereotyped. Well, there are many stereotypes about Germany, at least the ones I was stuck on had nothing to do with nerve gas or big ovens. 

I had no idea Germans and Italians had so much in common regarding the quantity of food regarded as appropriate over a holiday dinner. The goose was stuffed to the rim, the red cabbages were plenty and all the yummy bits and bobs included in the menu were just delicious. How narrow minded of me thinking that Germans only lived on a strict diet of sausages and sauerkraut. 

After all that goodness my "primordial" hunger was satisfied. Pure digestive bliss.

The usual festive amount of Prosecco helped to fuel my mouth and a laugh was had by everyone.

Even though it was not a white Christmas and we were far away from our families and friends, 

hubby and I managed to bring to our celebratory day the very same components that make a festivity intimate and heartfelt. The music of a traditional Christmas show, the company of people who care about us, plentiful and delicious food and that warm feeling inside that makes you aware more than anything that home is a state of mind and not a place.

Ciao for now.