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Friend since 1975, Edmundo generously hosted Cocktails for twenty-five old friends of mine to say hello and to meet Andrew, on his first trip to Florida. We all repaired to the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables where Edmundo’s evening extended for dinner amongst the palms on a balmy Florida evening.
After seafood dinner here in the Brickell area on Christmas Eve, we go to midnight mass at the Miami Cathedral to celebrate the joy of Christmas. To my surprise, the cathedral is quite a way out of town in an area where Haitian immigrants have moved in. The congregation is primarily black, and the Archbishop speaks in tongues – Creole, English and Spanish. It’s the singing of some of the Christmas Carols in Creole that really touches me. So beautiful and more impressive with everyone singing so passionately.
Christmas Night at Peggy’s was the thrill its always been – Christmas tree and gift giving before my favourite stone crab claws and shrimp.
On Boxing Day, Ricardo and Michael Iñesta host us with a group of old friends to marvellous Brazilian fusion dinner (with Ricardo adding Puerto Rican touches to create the other side of the fusion). – again in the balmy air on their terrace.
Andrew and I stayed in a very modern 2-bedroom apartment in a new Swire Hotel on Brickell, ‘East’. So central and being Christmas week, so buzzy.