La Navidad:

Merry Christmas to all :)

By this time you're probably beginning to see a pattern with Spanish holidays: lots of singing, lots of eating, lots of drinking and very little sleep. ;) Christmas is no exception. Since they celebrate the Three Kings (Wise Men) and most kids don't get presents until the 6 of January, even the little tikes are out and about until at least 1am when midnight mass ends. My Christmas this year did not deviate from the traditional pattern.

I started off the week making pestiños with my mother and sister-in-law and nephew. Pestiños are to a Spanish Christmas what gingerbread is to ours. They're the typical treat that all the families make together and eat throughout the holidays. It's a dough made with olive oil, anis, sesame seed, and flour. Then you fry it and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar. Pretty good. ;)

On the night of the 23rd, my friend Adam came down from Madrid. Do you remember him? He lived with us two years ago and worked with me at the school--my co-auxiliar. It was really nice to have him down for the holidays. We greeted him at the train station with a bottle of anis (typical drink at Christmas), a bowl of mantecados (a kind of Chirstmas cookie-like treat) and singing Christmas carols. :) It was quite a show. The other passengers were pretty surprised. we got a few strange looks, but I think everyone was pleased with the Christmasy welcome. I offered a mantecado to the security officer at the station before we left. He was shocked and barely able to stammer out "igualmente" when I wished him a Feliz Navidad. Adam, however, wasn't as surprised as I expected...I guess he knows us too well by now. ;) Unfortunately he had to leave early this morning because he works Monday...so it was another of those short but intense visits.

I started this blog saying that my Christmas was a typical Spanish fiesta, but within the pattern we mixed things up a bit this year. For one, Christmas eve dinner was at our house! I was too busy serving and preparing to even take a picture of the table. :( My brother-in-law and family came along with my mother-in-law and of course Adam. We were eight. It was lots of fun (though the dishes the next day were not!), and great to have family over. I do love playing hostess...especially now that I have a house!!

Dinner was delicious. We had jamón (of course!), cheese, deviled eggs, shrimp and asparagus rolled in turkey for starters. My mother-in-law made and a nice soup for our first course and the second course, pork loin rolled in flaky crust with a sherry wine sauce, I made. :) Yum! Of course there was too much food, and we still have leftovers even though last night I took it all over to Jesus's piso for a dinner of leftovers with our friends.

Midnight mass is something that's become a tradition for me living here in Spain. So after dinner, I showered and headed to church. The Christmas mass is always nice, lots of singing (I love Spanish carols) and everyone's so happy. This year they put big butane gas heaters in the church so it wasn't nearly as cold as usual. In the past my feet have fallen asleep from the cold!

Once Jesus was officially born and we'd kissed everyone in the nearby pews a Merry Christmas, it was off to "el sitio" (a plot of land where Angelines plans to build her own bar). We built a campfire and spent the night singing, lauging, joking and drinking. My friends even set up a kind of manger with a bay off hay and the baby Jesus. We went to bed at six-thirty in the morning, after a cup of warm soup and toasted rolls by the campfire. So within the usual merriment and partying that happens every Christmas Eve here in Andalucia, this year was different.

I hope your Christmases were equally love, fun, friend and family-filled. Merry, Merry Christmas.