Christmas Vacation

Emily was pretty into it.

I am pleased to say that I feel I've been doing a pretty good job of balancing things this vacation.  My time off is drawing to an end...Monday I'll be back at work, but I've got some good work done (nearly all caught up) and also managed to have lots of play time.

 The Thursday after Christmas I finally got the gingerbread made. :)  I had really been looking forward to making and decorating cookies with Emily this year because I was sure she'd be into it.  And to make the event more fun/festive, I invited our young cousins to come over too.  In the end there were a total of six kids ranging from 3-12.  Thankfully, Angelines' cousin decided to stay and help maintain order because it was a little bit crazy with  dough-rolling, cookie cutting, hot cookie sheets in and out of the oven, decorating, etc.  We had a nice evening and when the kids got tired of decorating, Sonia and I did a few ourselves while the cousins turned off the lights in the living room, dug into Emily's new dress-up box and had a dance party with flashlights! :) 

New Year's was a crazy rush for Angelines as it is every year, which means that for Emily, abuelita and I there was plenty of cleaning to be done.  We had New Year's Eve dinner at my sister-in-law's house as we have now for the past four or five years.  This year it was just our two families and abuelita, though.  It was a small gathering, but I think that made for a nice, more relaxing evening.  At 11:59pm, Emily dragged her tita into the bathroom with her and so tita Toñi missed the grapes thanks to Emily's timely bowls! 

In fact, we all missed the traditional twelve grapes that are eaten with the tweleve strokes of midnight on New Year's Eve to usher in the New Year!  We had the TV on a channel we don't usually watch and they did some weird electronic boing sound with each second, rather that bell tolls...  We all just sat there wondering what was happening until about the seventh boing, we realized we were behind and started cramming grapes in our mouths like crazy!  I'm not sure how that bodes for the new year... ;)

I interupted the dance party for a picture. :)

Angelines ended the "night" at 9am.  Needless to say we were all glad when Tuesday, January 2nd rolled around!  We spent the day being at home and relaxing, but then headed out in the evening to see the Christmas lights in Puente Genil. 

Emily has taken to not napping.  Or perhaps I should rephrase that, I have decided to stop wearing her to sleep in the middle of the day.  Since she was a little baby, I've put her in the back pack and nursed her to sleep for her nap.  She is quite heavy now and so partially for my back's sake and partially as a step toward weening, I have decided not to use the back pack anymore.  This means, however that afternoon naps are out the window.

Cousin love on New Year's Eve

We are making a switch to "quiet time" (my mom will laugh at that inherited tradition) during which we read and stretch or chat in the bedroom and try to generally relax and be quiet.  She doesn't fall asleep though...  This means that come 8pm she is so tired that everything provokes tears.  It hasn't been much fun, but it is true that getting her to sleep around 9:00-9:30 gives A and I lots of time to ourselves before heading to bed.  Last night we watched a whole movie (without falling asleep) and were still in bed by 11pm!

Yesterday was our last full day together as a family before I head back to work because Angelines is working today (Thursday).  We woke up and despite cloudy skies in La Roda, decided to head to the beach.  Abuelita came along too.  On the coast it was sunny and warm without even a wisp of a breeze--a perfect day.  We brought along Emily's bike and strolled along the waterfront for about half an hour then played in the sand and waves and had a seafood lunch.  It was wonderful to get out of Dodge for a bit and abuelita was so happy to have a day out with her granddaughter even if she couldn't play in the sand or wade. :)

Today Angelines wasn't planning to open, but rain is predicted for tomorrow and Saturday which means that the city decided to move the King's Day parade up to the 4th of January.  This year the parade started on abuelita's street so after "quiet time" we went over there to be pelted by candies thrown from the floats and watch the Kings go by.    It's such a terrible waste because more than half of it just gets swept up by the street sweepers that go behind the parade.  Emily was pretty excited about the candy though; I tried to see it through her eyes. ;)

Christmas lights

Little cyclist

What a beautiful family I have!