I am Thankful for...

I suppose it isn't a tradition unique to my family, but every year at Thanksgiving, we go round the dinner table and all share something we are thankful for.  Depending on the year, it can be easier or more difficult.  Since Thursday I have been thinking of everything I am grateful for--an important thing to do, and not just once a year!--and I am overwhelmed by all of it.  All of us complain about things like mortgage payments, or electricity bills, or the rising gas prices...but shouldn't we take pause and reflect on the fact that we have a house? We have electric lights and appliances?  We have a car?


And of course our gratitude should never limit itself to material things.  I am thankful for my health; for my loving, dedicated wife; for my amazing, inteligent, gentle daughter; for the friends who surround me here and the ones I miss so dearly from back home.  I am grateful for my beautiful, fun-loving sisters and as I grow into my role as a mother and parent, I am more and more grateful for my own parents whose endless dedication in my childhood and beyond has given me the confidence to be who I am.  I am thankful for my job and especially for my wonderful boss and coworkers who make going to work fun; and I am also thankful that I can afford to work only part-time so that I can be witness to my daughter's amazing growth and development.

I complain (more than I should) about skype, or patchy internet service, but I am thankful for the technology that allows me to keep in touch with all of you--my faraway family.  I complain of the distance that separates us, but I am grateful that I have means to visit you...even if it's less frequently than I would like.

I am extremely grateful that I have wonderful people--friends and family--here in Spain with whom I can celebrate this most wonderful of American holidays.  In the ten years I have lived here, I have made nine turkeys and eaten nine feasts.  In 2008, when I was home for Thanksgiving, my friends here celebrated in my honour.  It is too easy to wallow in negativity and fall into the consumerist trap of wanting more simply to have more; which is why Thanksgiving is such a beautiful holiday.  On Thanksgiving we can step back and take stock of what really matters in our lives.  On Thanksgiving we search for even the smallest thing for which to be thankful for in the midst of what may otherwise be darkness and with our gratitude bring light into our lives. 

With a grateful heart I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Terrific Two

My baby is two years old.  And her mother and I have pulled off a second fantastic birthday party. ;)  Three days later, I have finally recovered enough to sit down for a minute to blog about it.

Blowing out her candle :)

November 4th (yesterday) was Emily's actual birthday, but we celebrated on Wednesday the 2nd because that's our day off together.  It's not such a convenient day for the guests, but there was no way we could have pulled off a party on a day when either of us was working.  

Emily's birthday came as the pinnacle of a very long weekend for me.  November 1st, as you may know is All Saints' Day and a public holiday in Spain.  That means that I didn't have to work, but my dear Angelines did.  Since Tuesday was a holiday, most schools and my academy in Estepa took Monday off, as well.  So I didn't "work" Monday-Wed of this past week, but do not be fooled into thinking that I was well-rested come Thursday!  I was thoroughly exhausted, but in the most delightful way. ;)

Monday we got an early start on the day in large part thanks to the time change!  We cleaned the bar in preparation for Tuesday and then got our things together to head to the indoor pool in Campillos (about 20 min away).  After about 50 minutes at the pool we quickly did some last-min. shopping for birthday ingredients at the supermarket and then raced off to meet friends for a picnic barbeque in a park we've been wanting to take Emily to.  

 

We had wanted to play with her in the autumn leaves that  were sure to be littering the grass, but I guess this prolonged summer is taking it's toll because there were no leaves on the ground and most of them were still quite green on the trees.  I guess we'll just have to go back. Lunch was delicious and Emily had a great time (sans leaves) riding around on her pink motorcycle, swinging, drawing in the dirt with sticks and going down the slide again and again. Around 4:30 we headed home to get Emily into bed early (no nap for her!) and snuggle in on the couch with a good movie.  It was a very busy, but productive and fun day.

Tuesday was dedicated almost exclusively to the cake.  I had been racking my brain for over a week as to what kind of cake to make.  Last year I made a simple yellow cake with an oreo buttercream layer and chocolate ganche on top.  It was delicious, but Angelines said it was too sweet...  This year I wanted to make something equally decadent without going overboard on the sugar.  I consistantly halve the sugar in standard recipes as is, but with buttercream frosting I couldn't see a way to get around using loads of powdered sugar.  I decided that perhaps whipped cream was my answer.  

After investigating and even getting some long distance advice from my best friend's friend (we were talking via Viber and she was simultaneously texting her friend!--sometimes I love technology), I decided that whipped cream would be an okay layer, but not an adequate outer frosting.  And it was also clear that I would have to wait to assemble the cake until the day of the party since whipped cream can weep, melt and otherwise loose fluff over time.  

Emily and I baked the cakes together.  She has a great time in the kitchen with me.  As she gets older she enjoys "helping" me more and more.  Her new favorite job is peeling carrots.  She liked dumping the flour, sugar, etc. into the mixing bowl, but was grossed out by the eggs.  Slimy things disgust her. ;)  We made a double chocolate cake and substituted the cup of coffee the recipe called for with cinnamon tea.  

My long distance consultation had given me a few ideas for different frosting recipes and I decided that once Emily went to bed I would do a trial of a few different frostings.   At midnight I finally hit the hay after deciding that I would make buttercream frosting but with a different recipe: you make merengue and then whip the butter into that, thus avoiding the problem of too much powdered sugar.  The next day I halved the sugar in the merengue and after adding the coacoa powder to make it chocolate, voilá, I had a perfect, glossy, not-too-sweet frosting!  

Wednesday was a rush of cleaning, cooking, and last min. cake decorrating.  Once again we celebrated in our garage.  This year Angelines asked the boy who sometimes lends a hand at the bar to come and help with the balloons and set-up...and it's a good thing because I didn't step out of the kitchen from about 9am until after lunch at around 3 o'clock.  And once Emily was down for her nap I was back at it again.  The party wasn't until 6:30, so we had time to get everything in order, but for me it was non-stop washing and dirtying dishes.

The party itself was a hit and lots of fun.  At kids' parties in Spain, and I suppose this is often true in the States, too, it is customary to give out little bags of candy.  I don't let Emily eat candy and so I thought it was ridiculous for us take up this unhealthy tradition.  Kids get enough sugar at birthday parties, they don't need candy on top of it all!  Angelines was adamant that this was a deal-breaker...that our daughter would become some kind of social paraiah if we didn't go along with custom, "You're going to make it so kids won't want to come to her birthday parties!"  I told her that if I went to a party where they DIDN'T give out junk food and candy to my kid, I would be appreciative, which only provoked the response, "You're not like the mom's here!"

I am against the candy for health reasons, obviously.  I didn't want Emily to eat it, but if I was giving it out at her party, I couldn't very well not allow her to have any!  I thought of giving some other little trinket as a party favor...but I am also very against cheap toys like party blowers or key chains...or other things that just break or get lost or thrown away after a matter minutes or days.  Most of those things come from China where they are probably made in factories by children just a few years older than Emily! (Okay, I may be exagerating here, but you see my point)  

I find it ridiculous and actually amoral to just give something (which ammounts to ANYTHING--consumerism at its ugliest) only because we are expected to do so.  That follow-the-heard mentality is certainly not something I want to instill in my daughter; but I could see that it was very important for Angelines that we give some kind of gift to the children attending.  After thinking it over some, I came up with a compromise: a take-home craft.  

Emily and I made salt dough ornaments with cookie cutters that the children could paint and take home with them. I didn't feel the least bit guilty about this idea.  It was cheap, and all the materials were bio-degradable.  Plus, I did think it was important to have something for the kids to DO at the party.  As I hatched this "crafty" plan, memories of my mother's elaborate scavenger hunt birthday parties came to mind and I had to smile. :)

Emily got loads of gifts.  Many fun clothes, but also some great toys.  Her auntie gave her a big, stuffed Mickey Mouse which she loves, and friend gave her a babydoll that cries!  She is adorable with the baby.  She spent almost an hour this morning giving it its bottle and pacifier when it cried, then giving it "foffee" from her mug and offering invisible food on one of her plastic spoons.  She swaddles it and rocks it.  She is a little nurturer, as an aunt of mine says.

There are still baloons up in the garage, but the birthday cake is finished, and things are getting back to normal now.  As you can imagine, I was completely wiped out come Thursday, but it was the good kind of exhaustion; the kind that comes when you've really been productive.  Yesterday I went to sleep with Emily at 10pm and today I had a nap.  I am fighting off a little cold, which may just have begun as a result of all the running around and lack of sleep this past week.  Needless to say, this weekend we are planning to lay low and take it easy.  Although tomorrow is the Feria del Jamón in a nearby town and I do think we'll drive out for a bit to partake in some meaty goodness. ;)

Hope your November is off to an equally good start!