We rang in the New Year, as always, at my sister-in-law's house with plenty of cheese, jamón, shrimp wine...and 12 grapes at midnight. Emily almost made it this year. She was so excited to eat her grapes (it was the first thing she asked about when she woke up on the 31st), but then she passed out in her cousin's bed at 11:45pm. We played a youtube video of the bells the next day for her to eat her grapes. She was perfectly happy to do it late. In fact, it was actually better because she was nearly choking (as we all do!) trying to eat them with the bells, and with the video we could pause and wait for her to chew. ;)King's Day is fast approaching and things are gearing up here. Today the Royal Emissaries made an appearance in town to ask for the keys to La Roda in preparation for Their Majesties' arrival tomorrow evening in the big parade. Emily's King's Day gift is late arriving from Amazon, and although the King's always drop by Tita's house, we decided she should have a present here when she wakes up, too. Today I made a last-minute trip into Antequera to get something to give her.
I am not a fan of consumerism at the holidays or any time. Giving to give is the most pointless thing ever, in my mind. As I was walking though the toy aisles in the shopping center, I heard a mad comment: "Except for what we need, we've bought everything else!" That sums up the holidays for so many people. So you can imagine, I was not really very happy to be on this mission with nothing in mind to buy, limited time, and only a few shops to choose from. I saw loads of baby dolls, and even some Frozen leggos, which I'm sure Emily would have liked for a day or two; but I don't want to encourage her princess obsession and she rarely plays with the dolls she has! I was beginning to become exasperated by all the pink packaging that abounded, when I stumbled upon a National Geographic Solar Telescope! Jackpot! Emily loves Space. This year`s birthday party was space themed (I should put up some pictures!) and she has a really wonderful book on space from Ga that we've been reading lately. Just yesterday, in fact, she lamented not having a telescope. Now aspirations to become an astronaut are definitely something I'm willing to encourage. ;) So I spent more than I'd originally set out to, but I am pleased with our purchase: educational, useful, interesting and durable.
With King's Day comes the end of our holiday season here in España and the end of my break from school. This year's vacation has been much needed, for sure. The way the holidays fell--Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve on Tuesdays--has meant that Angelines has been working nearly non-stop through these two weeks, and consequently, so has the cleaning crew (ie. me). Still, doing work that is not school work is another kind of break, so I'm not really complaining. However, in preparation for this Tuesday, I am up late doing some preparation and getting caught up on things I should have done before the holidays.For Emily, this break from school has meant a lot of baking and cooking with me, lots of time with her tita and abuelita, and plenty of time to practice riding her bike. She has come with me nearly every day (and sometimes twice) to ride her bike as we walk Norte. For a while now, she's been wobbling about without training wheels, but until just recently she was still quite unsure of herself on the bike. Now she breaks and turns confidently and most exciting, for her at least, she can ride through the bumpy country roads! Thursday she had me walking all over the olive groves after her. We were exploring! We took a picnic and Norte and headed out into the great unknown. About 6km and two hours later, we came home again. What a trooper--she surprised me with how far she rode and zero complaining...except when I insisted it was time to head home because the sun was setting on us! She finally is using her brakes confidently, the only thing left to master is getting started herself. Once she's got that down, I can ride my bike with her and that will be a lot more fun for me! She walked me to death Thursday.
I hope your holidays have been as merry and adventure-filled as ours, ;) Here's to a new year and a new decade filled with excitement, discovery, love and fun!
