II San Silvestre

Remember last year some friends and I all dressed up as reindeer and pulled Santa in a cardboard sleigh around town for a costume "race" (more of a walk, really)?  Well this year we all dressed up again for the second annual San Silvestre race.  We didn't have time or energy to be very creative with our costumes.  A friend loaned us these that she had from last year's carnival celebration.  If you're familiar with the computer/phone game "Angry Birds" you'll know what we are...  For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about,  I'll explain a little.

In the game there are green pigs who have eaten the birds' eggs (thus ANGRY birds).  The player launches vengeful birds, kamikaze style at the pigs' hideouts trying to destroy as many as possible.  Sounds lame?  Not so.  It's quite addictive.  This summer I had fun playing on my dad's kindle, and spent a good hour or so with my sisters playing on Lucy's phone, too.  That was my first introduction to "Angry Birds".

You can imagine all the fun we had during the race, chasing each other and throwing ourselves at each other!  We won second prize: an Iberian chorizo and Iberian salami.  Yum!  We'll be having a get-together post holidays to enjoy the winnings.

Here are some pictures:

I was getting into character...

The rest of the group :)

Two smug pigs. ;)

Ready for the race!

Frog and Toad

Yesterday the city organized a storytelling session for the kids in town.  I was asked to tell a story.  I struggled to come up with an appropriately Christmas story, but in the end I found a cute one in a Frog and Toad book I bought last year.  Remember those stories by Arnold Lobel?

I made poster board cut-outs of Frog and Toad and then a few more to illustrate the story to the kids--I decided to tell it in English.  You can't appreciate my artwork in the video, unfortunately, but I thought you'd like hearing the story nonetheless.  The kids liked it; and even the parents understood it.  I was especially pleased when one of my 6-year-old student of mine piped up to finish one of my sentences (listen carefully). :)

Christmas traditions :)

A strange Spanish tradition: el circo de la cabra in which a goat climbs a small ladder up to a tiny round platform and turns circles to the blaring accompaniment of cheesy paso doble music while another member of the "circus" asks the crowd for money.  I've never seen this before, but apparently it's typical this time of year.  Not extremely entertaining, but certainly peculiar.  I snapped a quick picture with my cell phone: 

And one more little picture just to make you smile:  My girls enjoying an evening by the chimney. ;)

Not very Christmasy...

I am saddend by the wintery pictures everyone back in the States is posting on Facebook.  We have had one slightly cold snap (the temperatue was compounded by chimney problems once again!), but of course, the minute things with the chimney were squared away we're having near tropical weather.  It doesn't feel like the eve of Christmas Eve by a long shot.  Today it was sunny and in the seventies.  I was uncomfortably hot in my sweater and I didn't need a jacket at all.

I suppose I shouldn't complain about the nice weather.  Most of you might prefer to be here... or at least not have to plow or shovel through feet of snow to make it to the store for groceries.  But I am longing for a white Christmas and that just isn't in the cards here in Seville.

Aside from the weather being extraordinarily warm, I think I've just been too busy to actually stop and realize that Christmas is upon us.  I did bake my gingerbread house and I did bake gingerbread cookies for treats in my classes--the house smelled great for days!  But even doing Christmas crosswords and jeopardy games or singing Christmas carols, it still just doesn't feel like Christmas.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  For the second year in a row we'll be eating at my brother and sister-in-law's house.  I am planning to go to midnight mass: a tradition I've come to like; and then I'll probably go lend a hand at the bar.

This is my pretty poster for New Year's Eve... pretty cool, huh?

Perhaps it's all the headache of preparation for the holidays at the bar that's got me feeling a little scroogey.  It is true that this time of year is one of Angelines's least favorites just because there's so much work and people are so demanding and you have to be so careful to have everything in stock...  She's got to check her (shopping) list more than just twice! ;)  The storage space at the new bar is quite big; at least double what she had at the other place, but it's full to bursting at the moment.

It isn't just the shopping and preparing and long weekends of work, though.  It's also the thinking and thinking and going round and round about what we can do attract a little extra business this holiday season.  I spent a good five hours working on posters to advertise New Year's Eve and a few other things we've got up our sleeve.  We're going to have an afternoon of gingerbread (the cookies were a hit in all my classes) and chocolate before King's Day, and we're also going to serve hot sandwiches on Christmas eve (and from now on).  I love spending time making pretty posters (when I have the time, that is).  It's all the thinking about WHAT to advertise or plan and what it all entails that is the most exhausting part.  Thankfully my private classes are finished until after the New Year so I can dedicate myself to helping A at the bar; but sometimes it feels like I just don't get a break.

And speaking of a break, my university classes are also thankfully taking a Christmas vacation; but for me that just means I have a little respite in which to catch up!  I've fallen behind in more than one class because the books were very slow getting to me.  The semester doesn't end until Feb. so I've still got a bit to go before exams.  Christmas break will be a good time to catch up, review and (maybe...?) get ahead.  So far I'm on track.  I have caught up in my math class and am slowing doing the semester's reading for my English class.  I'm only behind one unit in each of my other two classes, so with all of Christmas break stretching before me I think I'm in good shape.

I hope you're all snug by your chimneys and enjoying the holidays with eggnog or cider or gingerbread or a combination of other yummy treats.  Think of me still sweating among olive trees! :P

Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Construction...

Unfortunately it seems the budget will only allow for the following construction work to go ahead unhindered. ;)

That's right--my very first gingerbread house!  I have helped make one before...but it was many years ago.  I think I was eleven or twelve.  I wasn't without help this time either, however.  My nephew spent all afternoon yesterday and today helping roll out dough, bake pieces and then helping with construction itself.  His girlfriend pitched in with the decorations, too.  What a project!

Yesterday we stuffed ourselves with cookie dough--the best part of any baking project--as we cut and baked the pieces for the house. Today was the actual construction.

The royal icing, the "mortar", turned out to be the trickiest part.  I don't have an electric mixer here... so after attempting with my hand blender, we resorted to the old-fashioned way of whipping up a meringue.  I thought my arm was going to fall off!  The recipe promised 7-10 min of "beating on high speed".  After an hour of taking turns with the darned stuff we decided it was good enough: no stiff peaks, but it wasn't so runny as to be impossible to use, either.

The next obstacle was how best to apply the mortar to the roof and walls.  A butter knife wasn't going to cut it (hahaha).  In the States, of course, ziplock bags abound and cutting off the tip of a corner will give you a perfect pastry tube for delicate decorating, but no such luck in España.  To make the gingerbread dough I used the last of a bag of C&H brown sugar my mom sent me God knows how long ago and you guessed it--ziplock seal!  We rinsed out the bag, cut off the tip of one corner and, voila!  We were in the construction business.

So far our creation is holding up, though the roof is sagging and one wall seems to be sinking in on itself.  I think the semi-runny icing is to blame.  That, and the fact that we were in a hurry to finish and so didn't let the walls properly harden before putting on the roof or beginning to decorate.  In any case, we took pictures and my nephew can't wait to eat it, so this one's not going to be one of those gingerbread houses that sits around all through the New Year as a holiday decoration! ;)  If it doesn't collapse tonight we might wait until Tuesday to enjoy it with a tall glass of milk!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the baking/construction process:

Francisco rolling out the dough.

Only missing the decorations.

Rudolph flying over the roof. ;)

I think I'm most proud of our "brick" chimney.

Hope you're all gearing up for the holidays and enjoying similarly delicious projects!  Merry Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas!!!

I took out our few holiday decorations a couple of days ago.  One of my favorites is a singing, dancing snowman that my mom sent me the first year I was living here in La Roda.  Of course at the time I thought it was terribly hokey and silly...but it's grown on me over the years.  It's always been a big hit with the kids at school, too. ;)  Anyway, this year Bela has decided to get into the Christmas spirit and dance along with the snowman.

Video evidence:



Merry Christmas. :)