Ya vienen los Reyes Magos!

It is the eve of Epiphany or as called in Spain Día de Reyes (King's Day).  For those of you who with little Bible study under your belts, Epiphany is the celebration of the arrival of the Three Wise Men who gave their gives to the new-born baby Jesus.  The famous tweleve days of Christmas are the tweleve days between Christmas Day and Epiphany.  Living in a Catholic country you pick up these kinds of biblical tidbits without need of catechism. ;) 

As you may have guessed, if you didn't already know, King's Day is the day that Spanish children traditionally get their presents.  The Three Kings come on camel-back from the Orient bearing gifts for all the children.  Normally, there is a huge parade through town, candy and cheap gifts are thrown from the Kings' floats as well as those of other participating associations.  Traditionally, most of the town follows the parade in one gigantic crown all through the town...of course, COVID-19 changed that.  This year, each King came in his own mule-drawn carriage.  There was no candy and there were no crowds, but I must say it was a classy tour around town; not the garish show that it usually is, but much more regal, if you ask me.

This year, for the first time ever, I decided to try my hand at making the traditional King's Day dessert: roscón de Reyes.  I was only sorry that we started on this endeavor so late that Emily didn't get to help deccorate them for the oven.  We have made one big one and one little one for abuelita.  It is tradition to hide a tiney baby doll and a bean in the dough.  Whoever gets the slice with the baby will have good luck for the New Year and whoever gets the bean has to pay for the roscón.  I wasn't about to bake any plastic goodies in my cake (even if they were "oven safe") so I opted for a garbanzo bean and a white bean... I think I'll make the garbanzo the "baby". 

Emily has been beside herself with excitement all day.  She is a lucky duck indeed, getting gifts from Santa as well as the Wise Men!  Although, more and more Spaniards celebrate Santa these days because it allows the kids more time to play with their toys before going back to school.  It's back to school on January 7th.  Anyway, Emily has carefully picked some grass for the camels ("Do they come in the house, mommy?  Or do the Kings tie them up outside?), roscos de vino for Their Majesties, and her letter specifying that she would like a giant stuffed teddy bear and an electric scooter.  The scooter (not electric) ended up being a gift from Santa, if you'll remember.  These four obviously have to divvy up the gift-giving during the holidays.  Here at the house she has two gifts under the tree--a few more puppets, and a pair of inline rollerskates--and at her tita's there is a giant stuffed teddy that she is going to LOVE. :)

Yesterday, as a sort of early Reyes, we ventured out of La Roda for a bit of Christmas shopping with Emily.  Abuelita always gives her money for her birthday and for Christmas.  Emily HATES it.  I think that our trip to Málaga yesterday, however, may have changed her mind. ;)  We decided she could spend her money on what she wanted.  This trip was exclusively for Emily.  We went to the beach just quickly to take a little stroll along the shore.  Emily dipped her feet in and ran through the surf.  Then we caught the metro into the center, had a lovely lunch and did some quick shopping at the mall.  Emily bought herself a beautiful princess dress costume, a pretty purple pegasus horse, a little stuffed doggie and a big jiggly "koosh" ball ("It's a coronavirus, mom!").  She was on cloud nine.  We have never taken her shopping like that and she loved every minute of it!  Although, I'm pretty sure we're never going to be able to just walk by a toy store with her again.

The holidays are coming to an end and today I was a little blue.  I think this year's Chirstmas holiday has been one of the best ever.  We have opened the bar more than usual, which means more work for me cleaning, disinfecting and mopping, but Angelines is home every night by 11pm and we can just sit and enjoy our dinner and an episode of our TV series.  It's been a relaxing holiday; a real break.  I will be sorry for it to end.