January Re-cap

The three stooges on a walk :)

Oh dear...how has an entire month gone by without a word from me?  It's embarrassing to admit that my first post of 2016 is on February 4th!

Before I begin back-blogging, today is Emily's monthday: 15 months and she is up and running.   Although she technically took her first solo steps before my parents' visit, it wasn't until the end of their time here that she really started walking alone.  And just in the past two or three days she has become so confident that she'll brush our hands away when we try to hold on to her.

It really is amazing to see how quickly babies change at this age.  She is developing so quickly it's ming-boggling.  Of course physical changes like being able to walk and practically run, are most obvious, but it is incredible, too to see just how much she understands of what we say: Spanish or English.  She knows exactly what's going on and is watching every little move we make.

Okay, now for the re-cap of Januaray:

The holidays were a blur.  As I mentioned in my New Year's Eve post, this year was busier than past years--I take it as a very good sign for this new year.  Although we weren't starting from zero when we opened Pub California, it really is a totally different place/venue from the old bar.  We never used to have concerts, the locale itself is bigger, it's much more modern and far better deccorrated; it's a whole different feel.  We have maintained our clientel, but I think we've also gained some new customers. 

They say that a new business needs three years to get stabilized and really begin turning a profit.  This past October was three years at the new place and maybe it's just coincidence, but as I say, this holiday season was the best we've ever seen by far. :)  I am hoping that this is proof of successful business management and evidence that people are able to recognize a good thing when they see it. ;)  Needless to say I have high hopes for 2016.

Emily got snuggled into our rental home's armoire right away.

But with all the craziness of Christmas, New Year and King's Day, there wasn't a lot of relaxing that happend over the winter holiday.  Thankfully, my parents treated us to a lovely four days vacation in Cádiz the second weekend in January.  Angelines closed the bar for some much needed R&R and rest and relax is exactly what we did in Caños de Meca a small coastal village about 2 hours from La Roda.

The beaches in Cádiz are world famous and for good reason: fine white sand stretches for miles along the beautiful turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  We were on the Western side of Gibralter.  The geography is really quite spectacular because there are beautiful pine forests practically right up to the beach so there is a lot of variety for hikes and easy walking.  Bela came with us too, of course, and so we were especially thankful for the many natural areas to explore with a dog.

This was the beach not half a mile from our rental house.

Aside from short excursions from our rental casa rural (the Torre de Meca, Trafalgar lighthouse), we also explored the nearby ruins of the Roman city Claudia Baelo at Bolonia, another small village along the coast of Cádiz.  Another day we spent exploring a still functioning Roman aqueduct in Santa Lucia and feasting on truly gourmet cuisine in Vejer de la Frontera.  It was a fantastic vacation and just what the doctor ordered after what can only be described as a stressful holiday season.  We came back to La Roda refreshed and ready to get back to our schedule.

Our trip to Cádiz, was unfortunately the beginning of the end of my parents' time here, however.  Their three-month visit last year for Emily's birth will make all successive visits seem incredibly short; and sure enough, their three weeks here this year flew by before we knew it.  I do think, nonetheless, that we were able to take full advantage of our time together.  I was working for the last week and a half they were here, but that provided extra bonding time with Emily, since I think Angelines was happy to have the live-in help. ;)

It is true that after having lived here for three months (that's as much time as a college foreign exchange!), my parents really have an idea of what our life is like and how to fit right in.  The fact that they have both continued studying Spanish was especially helpful this time, and although I am a bit of a brat in terms of helping them with their studies, I could immediately tell how much both of them had improved in the year they'd been home.  I am pleased to report that even they could tell a difference in their level of comprehension and ability to communicate; so often others can see our improvements when we are only blinded by our faults.

The remainder of January was relatively uneventful.  The weather was fantastic on our holiday and although the temperatures have gone down some and it has rained once or twice, we are still having an amazingly mild winter.  Just two days ago it was 27º C mid-day (that's eighties F!).  It's a bit frightening to think what July and August will be like if these trends continue, but it certainly was pleasant to have such perfect, warm, sunny days while on holiday.

I'll leave you with some pictures from our trip--hard to choose just a few! 

Artistic selfie on one of our walks near "home"

Em and Grandma looking for shells and playing in the waves at Bolonia

Cool "painting" setting on my camera: Trafalgar lighthouse

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the view of Vejer

Happy family :)

...And this is why my mother is Emily's new favorite! ;)

One last post

I thought I shouldn't let 2015 come to an end without a single word from me on the blogosphere. ;)

Technically I have been on vacation since the 22nd, but I feel as though I've been working more than ever!  Thankfully, these holidays have so far been the busiest in the history of our business and so Angelines has been working over time which means I am usually on my own with Emily for most of the day and it also means my mother-in-law and I have been spending much more time cleaning at the bar than usual.  Don't get me wrong, I am by no means complaining; but the truth is that I have had precious little time to sit and blog.

Christmas was a blur, honestly.  I anticipate conflict in our future as Emily gets more aware of the holiday and would prefer to spend Christmas morning opening presents and playing with toys as opposed to cleaning at the bar...  We had a nice dinner at our house with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law's family Christmas eve.  Emily was too tired almost even to wait for her mom to arrive from the bar (Angelines always opens in the afternoon, then closes for dinner and opens again in the wee hours).  She ended up going to sleep around 10ish and was getting quite cranky toward the end.  We'll see how she fairs tonight.

We pushed her nap back as far as we could in hopes that she'll be more awake and fun at dinner this evening, which will of course go until 12am when we eat our 12 grapes to usher in the New Year.  We'll eat with all of my in-laws over at my sister-in-law's house; she has borrowed a baby camera so if I need to put Emily down upstairs we can keep an eye on her as we continue our merry-making.

...Anyway, Christmas, as I was saying was a blur of great food (too much, as always) and lots of sweeping and mopping at the bar.  Emily was pretty cute when she saw her presents under the tree from Santa Claus, however.  She actually did notice that they were new. :)  She got three new books and a toy xilophone--which has since had to be returned because it was so out of tune I thought I'd ruin her chances at a musical career from the get-go.  We've ordered a new one. But you can see she enjoyed it while she had it. ;)  Santa brought Angelines a footstool and me a much needed new pair of jammies.  It was a merry Christmas, indeed.

And now the new year is upon us.  2016...doesn't that sound futuristic?  I feel as though I say that now with each new year, but it does just sound a bit daunting to my ears.  To give twenty fifteen a proper send off, my parents flew into Málaga yesterday.  We are so happy to have them--especially Emily.

I was very interested to see how she would react to them since she does "know" them from Skype and of course we spent nearly a month together this past summer on our visit to the U.S., but I wasn't sure how she would take seeing these two dimentional, pixelated images come to life.  It turns out that Skype is a pretty good second to real face-to-face time, because Emily was immediately talking and interacting with my mom and dad--something she does not do with just anyone, certainly not at first.  They were of course tickeled and I was very pleased, too.  Grandma is a new favorite because she will sit for hours and patiently "putter" (in her words) with Emily on her play mat.

So tonight we'll be all together, though I am missing my sisters who were here this time last year, to say good bye to the old year and welcome in the new.

I feel as though I should be posting something a bit more philosophical: a reflection on the year...but as is I am hurriedly typing while my baby and her grandfather nap and grandma studies Spanish verb conjugations, that will have to wait.  Em has been down for nearly two hours now and is probably ripe for wakening at any moment so my time is limited.

Perhaps some quick highlights from the year...

- Our visit to the States, although rushed and a bit stressful in the moment, was really wonderful in hindsight.  It was especially fantastic to be able to see so much of my family and so many of my good friends.  For those of you I missed, I hope that 2016 will bring many visitors to this side of the Atlantic. ;)

- Just about every moment spent with my little Emily is a highlight for me, which means that this year on a whole has been pretty wonderful.  Getting more comfortable with my new role as a mom has been nice, although I look ahead and am overwhelmed by the challenge of being a model for this intrepid little human.

- Finding a job has also been a wonderful change this year.  Saying good bye to my students in La Roda was a tough decision to make, but in the end it has been the right one.  My 20 hours a week fit perfectly into our joint schedule; I have time to spend with my girls and enjoy them, and can still contribute (though minimally) to the household income.

- Graduation!  I can't even remember if I posted about finishing my degree.  I suppose I did, but I was so thrilled when I gave my final presentation and defense of my thesis--9.1/10 was my final grade.  I was so relieved to be done, and also totally over the moon about how enthusiastic the panel was about my topic.  That hour in Madrid this past July, really was one of the best moments of the year.

In short, it's been very good year and I expect 2016 to follow suit.  I hope that as all of you sit and reflect on the moments spent these past 365 days, that you too find the overall balance to be positive; and I wish all of you many more moments of love, fun, pride and wonder in this coming year.

Happy New Year to you all!

A walk in the park

Yesterday we took full advantage of my day off and had a wonderful picnic lunch at a nearby picnic area we have been wanting to explore for a few years now.  It turned out to be the perfect place for Emily: a huge grassy area, swings (she likes those now), slides and LOTS of dead leaves on the ground to play with and eat. ;)

Angelines thought to bring the little "bike" that Em got for her birthday and it was a good thing.  She loves pushing it around the house, and had a blast cruising all around exploring and enjoying her independence.  I think today her legs must be sore because she has never walked so much in all her life!  She is still not walking on her own, but you can see in this video that she is pretty darn close.

´Tis the Season!

I'm gobbling up oatmeal before taking the dog for a quick walk and then heading off to work, but I just had to take a moment to welcome the holiday season.  This past weekend was a long holiday weekend here in Spain (Dec. 6 is Constitution Day and the Dec. 8 is the religious celebration of the Inmaculada) so most people get out their decorations over the weekend in preparation for the holidays.  We did the same. 

This year our Christmas tree is up on a shelf of sorts...any guesses as to why??  We put it up and decorated it yesterday.  Most of my ornaments are hand-painted salt-dough ones that I made with my holiday cookie cutters.  Angelines commented that we ought to make a few more (!); she is somewhat of a Scrooge (unfortunately common in her line of work) and so I was delighted by the suggestion.  Ornament making is on the top of my to-do list now. ;)

I streamed Christmas carols over my laptop and lit the tree while Emily babbled and played with santa hats.  The only thing missing was a cup of hot chocolate or egg nog.  I was in such a Christmasy mood that I even began to think about and shop for presents--Santa's workshop has a webpage now so shopping is so much more convenient! 

Once the tree was finished, Emily was enchanted.  She spent all evening pointing at it and shrieking with delight.  I have the feeling that Christmas is going to be an experience similar to her birthday, in which the fun and magic return thanks to a fresh look through young eyes. 

I'll leave  you with a quick video I took on my phone:  I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Thankful

As always, we celebrated our Thanksgiving on Saturday (yesterday).  And as always it was a success.  This year, however, I especially enjoyed myself.  Perhaps because I delegated some of the cooking, or because I'm finally getting the timing down as far as baking with just one oven; but for whatever reason, this year I was much more relaxed than I have been in the past and I was really able to simply relish the beauty of the holiday.

I started with preparations on Thursday--pie crust dough and the sauteed veggies for the stuffing.  Then Friday kicked off the beginning of baking to clear the oven for Saturday morning turkey.  The bird was done at 11:30am, which gave me plenty of time to carve it before everyone arrived, heat the stuffing in the oven and make the gravey.  It also gave me time to bake a last-minute carrot cake because I suddenly realized that only one pumpkin pie wouldn't be enough dessert for 12 people!

We had quite a spread, although fairly traditional: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green salad, and, an Andalusian touch--jamón.  The food was delicious and the company even better.  I was asked to bless the table (in English and Spanish) and one friend was standing by prepared with the National Anthem on his cell phone playing in the background.  Agreed, it's corny, but I do appreciate the enthusiasm to appropriately celebrate the holiday. :)  They even indulged me later by following in my family's tradition of going round the table saying what we're thankful for.

Lunch extended on til around 6:30 with desserts, coffee, and plenty of chatting.  Our family had other engagements and so left earlier, but it had been more than six months since out group of friends had gotten together all at once.  This was the perfect excuse to hang out and catch up.

This Thanksgiving I was especially thankful for the friends I've made here and as always for my wife and beautiful daughter.  It was a wonderful day.

Belated Birthday Post

I was quite proud of the way her cake turned out--
and it was DELICIOUS!

Time has flown since Emmy's birthday celebration, and I haven't had a moment to sit and write it all up for posterity.  Even now I should probably be waking my sleepy one-year-old because my furrier daughter is beginning to cry to be let out for her evening walk and daylight is waning.

I will ignore her for just a bit longer since I know that once Emily wakes up it might be at least another week before I get the time to sit down and finish this post.

As you gathered from the hastily posted video of the cake and singing, Emily Alejandra enjoyed every minute of being the center of attention on her birthday.  She was passed from person to person, stuffed herself on pancakes, was probably snuk some chocolate or whipped cream when I wasn't looking, discovered magnets on our outdoor fridge, and was given many rides on her new "motorcycle".  She didn't fuss once, never even got slightly crabby until the very end when 9:30pm rolled around and her bed began calling.  I was amazed.

The spiffed up garage turned out to be the perfect place for the pary.

I am not much of a birthday celebrator.  For me, my birthday is just another day.  I don't really mind much if we do anything special to celebrate it or not.  I couldn't care less about presents, either.  So when in the weeks leading up to November 4th I was contemplating the reality of a real birthday party, I was not too thrilled.  Angelines tends to be like me on the celebration front, so niether of us was particularly keen on putting together a big celebration.  Thinking about doing this yearly for at least 18 years seemed daunting at best.

I am pleased to say, however, that the party was a complete success and much to my surprise I enjoyed myself immensely.  There was a lot of work involved, mainly cleaning since we had to prepare our garage for the guests...but we kept the actual party low-key.  Only our closest friends and neighbors came, and of course the family was all present.  We served pancakes, and chocolate chip cookies as well as cake; and as the afternoon wore on there was cerveza, cheese, chorizo and lomo to snack on.  Emily was showered with gifts, many new clothing articles as well as a few toys.

The mom's were duly impressed by the decorrating. ;)

It turns out, my child's birthday is much more important (and fun) to me than my own.  You could say that giving birth has given me a whole new perspective on birthdays.  It was a day I was proud of and something I wanted to share with everyone. The Friday following her party was the monthly meeting for our breast-feeding support group.  I couldn't help dirtying the kitchen once more to make a cake to share with all the wonderful moms who have accompanied me throughout this first year.  So rather than a birthDAY celebration, we had more of a birthWEEK celebration. :)


Being a key player in Emily's being born probably has everything to do with my new-found love of birthdays, I suppose.  We are just passive actors on our own birthdays, but for a parent, a birthday marks a very important, life-changing anniversary.  And of course, a mother's role is 100% active.  It is an amazing thing to look back over a year and think about how after just 15 hours of labour, my world was completely turned upside down, inside out and backwards in the most beautiful way possible.  And that, certainly is cause for celebration!

Happy First Birthday, Em

I'll give a more complete update later (probably this weekend), but I wanted to share this video of Emily's first birthday party with all of you. She got lots of presents, ate a TON of pancakes and enjoyed herself thoroughly; she was definitely the star of the show--as it should be. :)  We love you Em!