Christmas part 1 (pre Christmas)

Christmas in Spain

 

This is our Happy Christmas board at the school!  Christmas is similar here but hasn't always been. Spain, along with much of Europe and the Hispanic world celebrate Three Kings Day which is celebrated at the end of the Christmas season on the 6th of January which is 2 days before going back to school.  Before going to sleep on the 5th of January, children put some milk and biscuits next to the Christmas tree for the Three Kings and some water for their camels. They also leave out their best pair of shoes to be filled with presents.  Recently they have adopted many of our Christmas traditions and are now celebrating both holidays.  Most of the kids get only a couple of gifts for Christmas  unlike the load of most Americans.

 

This is just up the street from our house and is a great example of how both holidays are celebrated here.  Santa is climbing the ladder on the left and the three kings on the right.  Instead of writing letters to Santa they all write letters to the three kings and often choose just one king they want to specifically write it to.

 

Spanish Christmas Treats

For Christmas, Brent's work gave him this huge box stuffed with holiday treats.  It included lots... of alcohol, olive oil, cheese, meets, tuna, peppers, and goodies.  The mazapan and turron are some of our favorite treats.

The Ward Christmas Party

The "Belen" Nativity was performed by the primary starring Kaiya Huber with Morgan as Joseph.  They were not thrilled about doing this together but they were good sports and did what they were told.  This is traditionally done in this ward and they have ward costumes for everyone. 

 

Mason's half face is hard to see on the far left as a shepherd, and Kamree is up above him as an angel. 

After the Nativity and a short program Santa  or "Papa Noel" and one of the wise men "Three Kings" came in bearing gifts.   The girls had to line up for Santa and the boys for the king.

No one sat on Santa's lap to tell him what they wanted and there were no candy canes but these girls didn't complain once they got a gift instead!  After the gifts were given, the chapel/class/activity room was rearranged into a dining hall and we began eating dinner at the slightly early dinner hour of 20:00hrs.

Kamree's Christmas Program

The kids all practiced songs for school Christmas programs for weeks and I was looking forward to watching them perform them.  As it turned out; however, I was only able to watch Kamree's.  The 3, 4 and 5 year olds were open to 2 guests per child but the rest of the kids' were closed.  The 2nd graders watched the 1st graders perform and then they swapped, the 3rd and 4th did the same and then the 6th and 5th graders which made it so no one in our family was able to see another perform.  The school does not have a large gym or auditorium where they do assemblies etc. so they go across the street to the Cultural Center which has an auditorium, that apparently isn't big enough for more than 2 grades at a time.  This is also the town's movie theatre that shows movies just on Sundays and the occasional Saturday. 



The first semester the 5 year olds learned about "Under the Sea" and everything they did was related to that.   The entire Christmas program was performed in these sea creature costumes.  She got to sing a solo line in this song.

 Roscon

This is the traditional "Three Kings Day" cake/bread.  The top is similar to a fruit cake and the filling is a whipped cream.   A  toy or coin is hidden inside and  whoever happens to get the piece with it is awarded good luck for the new year or gets to pay for the cake depending on the family's tradition. 

Kamree won the luck with this one when she bit into this cute little gnome!  Her luck quickly began at church on Sunday when she finally lost a tooth that had been loose for nearly a month!

The city gives gifts to the children under 10 the day before Three Kings Day, but you have to come with an invitation which our kids just received!  

Fall Hikes

Our friends that live in Madrid finally received their shipped car from Brazil, so we invited them to drive it up to our house.  It was such a nice day that we decided to go for a hike.

Waterfall Hike

This is where the hike starts and follows a river a mile or two to a double waterfall.  We did this hike last spring and it was much prettier with all the flowers.  Luckily not all the trees were dead as well. 

We crossed through the cow pasture,  but we weren't as anxious about it this time.  Clara, the 7 year old girl, was excited that there were "baby cows, middle-aged cows (teens) and adult "cows. 

This cow was more interested in them than they were in it. 

To get to the waterfall you have to go down these extremely steep stairs.

Here is the left side of the waterfall and I am quite sure Morgan and Isaac are up there somewhere on the far left headed toward the waterfall.

Here is the right side and a close up with Morgan and Isaac just after a lady apparently tried to push them.

 

El Escorial

The next day we drove out to San Lorenzo de El Escorial de to hang-out with a co-worker of Brent and his family. 


They wanted to take us for a hike to get a nice view of the monastery, which is that humongous building in the background.  It was a nice day again and we just brought light jackets which the Spanish family thought was crazy.  They brought their winter coats and the parents never took them off.  We do dress a lot lighter than the Spaniards who often wear double layers topped with a jacket and a coat. 

Real Monasterio

Here is a closer view.  The thing is massive as you can see by comparing it to the buildings in the background. 

Besides the amazing view, the hike was full of these large amazing boulders.   We had quite a difficult time keeping the kids focused on the path ahead. 

This is Morgan's world. About as soon as we arrived he disappeared, although we did run into him every once in a while.  His current obsession is survival gear and he brought one of his many survival kits with him on this hike, which we fortunately never got to use. 

 

"Cueva del Oso" (Bear Cave)

We were glad this sign warned us that this is a bear's cave and we were happy that he wasn't home during our picture. 

Castañas

During our hike, the family talked about these yummy wild "castañas" that you can find below a castaño tree up ahead only during this time of year.  We were excited to try something new and when we found them we were so interested with their super thorny pods which we had to step on to open and then peel off the brown part to expose the castaña.  We loved them and thought they tasted a lot like large pine nuts; these are also served roasted. 

Half-way home we started putting all the info together and began wondering if these could be chestnuts and sure enough they were.  Well at least we have finally tried them and "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" means so much more to us now!  Our town just set up a roasted chestnut stand just for the holidays that we will have to try.

Churros

 

After the hike and Burger King, we went to their home for churros, porras (straight thick churros) and chocolate.  The churros here have no sugar or cinnamon and therefore need to be eaten with chocolate.  The chocolate they eat with them tastes like a watered down chocolate pudding.  These are really tasty until you get to about the 11th or 12th!

Chirimoyas

We learned about a lot of new foods during our visit including the fruit chirimoya.  We had previously assumed that these were a vegetable since they were green and often placed next to other veggies at some of the stores.  A couple of days later we bought some and tried them and decided they taste a bit like mangos.  You have to eat them with a spoon since they are super mushy and they are full of large seeds so our kids didn't care much for them but Brent and I really enjoyed them.

 

Thanksgiving with a Side of School

We were not sure what we were doing for Thanksgiving since we would both be working and the kids had to go to school.  We eventually (Thursday night) invited the sister missionaries to come on Saturday for a possible "Thanksgiving", but we were having no luck finding a turkey.  We had checked some larger supermarkets out of town and all but one grocery store in our town.

Our First Snowfall

It snowed the day before Thanksgiving Day and the kids were ecstatic. Kids all the way to school were carrying snowballs which some carried like a show and tell item into the school.  Unfortunately everything was melted by recess.  We were told this is the most snow we will ever get here.  That is fine with Brent and me but not so much with the kiddos. 

 

We came to Spain with no Thanksgiving decorations and we weren't feeling the season so I pulled out these feathers we had shipped and told the kids we were going to make a turkey. This turkey is what we came up with!  At least it made us feel more at home.

I didn't expect anything to be Thanksgiving related at school on Thanksgiving day but the first grade classes taught a lot about our Thanksgiving with videos, coloring pages and they even made hand turkeys.  I loooved it! 

I didn't notice this school board next to the office until the day before Thanksgiving as I was walking to the break room.  The school did have a special Thanksgiving day lunch for the teachers which I was initially quite excited about but I felt guilty when I left my kids to go enjoy the feast.   The kids did request some deserts if possible.  When I walked into the break room I knew my expectations had been too high, not only were there no deserts there was no "Thanksgiving food" either, with the exception of mashed potatoes. They did; however,  have paella with noodles, cooked veggies,  the usual crusty dry bread, chicken chunks in gravy, and fish something. 

Before I get to more Thanksgiving I want to share a few things about our school.

This is our school's only drinking fountain.  I was so thirsty today which made me really miss American drinking fountains.  I wasn't  quite thirsty enough to run outside to use this.  The kids in the school drink out of the bathroom sinks but the faucets are so close to the bowl that I don't think I could fit my head under it.  The only normal "American" drinking fountain we have seen here in Spain has been the one at the Stake center.  These Spanish, maybe European style, drinking fountains are most everywhere and work best with a water bottle.  They are really difficult to turn on even for me and I feel like I have bruised my palm after pushing it on long enough for my kids to get a drink. 

 

This is a boy in the 1st grade.  He is new and so I took him out to help him catch up in his English book.  This picture is to show their pencils. They don't use pencils with eraser tops here but instead a large separate eraser they call a "rubber".  In first grade they share just one sometimes two per table, which they constantly fight over and hide for themselves.  I have finally began bringing  my own with me so as I am helping the kids I can always find one. 

Something quite different about our school is that the caretaker/custodian lives at the school year around.  Down below the walkway out to 5th/6th grade is his little apartment and porch/eating area.

This is the first grade hall which looks really good  in this picture.  Most of the time there are coats strung everywhere that I feel like we are parting the red sea as we slide the coats to the side so the kids don't trample them.

This is one of the four 1st grade gym classes.  I just wanted to share a little about how their gym is different.   Each class has 2 gym days a week, one inside and one outside.  When they are inside they have to change into clean gym shoes and a gym shirt and then change back after.  When they are outside they just change their shirts after.  On those days the kids wear sweat suits or tracksuits and have to bring a small towel to wipe off after. Some of the older kids shower after gym class as well.  The first graders have been working on bouncing ballswith a partner the entire month of November.  Kaiya and Morgan have been doing Yoga, but have also done acrobatics and sometimes play dodge ball but with just one ball.


 

Now back to Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving night is not a night where I normally get a lot of sleep and this year was no exception.  I wasn't standing in line at stores but I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find a turkey and we would have to serve the sister missionaries deli turkey.  I also worried about being responsible for the outcome of the whole meal instead of just a couple of the dishes.  I woke up tired as usual Friday morning and I set out determined to find a turkey!  There was one store left in our town I hadn't checked yet so I thought I would start there.

This is the very steep street I walk down to go this store and walk up to return.  It is so steep that sometimes I feel I need a rail to hold onto when going down.   And when returning home I am going up and am always carrying groceries that feel like bricks.     Notice the dog sign:  This sign always makes me wonder.  I have seen these at the park and I assume it means to watch out for dog dung, but who knows, maybe it means that it is okay for your dog to do his business here!

SUCCESS!!! I finally found our turkey at the store at the bottom of the hill.  I was so excited that I called the sisters and had them help me choose a set of elders to join us. Unfortunately all they had was a small 7.5lb turkey so we couldn't invite all 8 missionaries from our ward.

I wish I had gotten a picture before we cleared our plates, but I think the missionaries enjoyed it, what do you think?

What's new!

We are much busier this school year than last year when we moved here.  I started working during the day and in addition to the weekly Spanish classes, the kids are each taking extracurricular classes.  We feel like this will help them with their Spanish, help them get to know other kids and give them something to do in their very long afternoons.

Kamree

Kamree's classes are really cheap so she is taking artistic gymnastics twice a week and acrobatics twice a week at the town's sports complex and she loves them both.  

I couldn't get pictures of her gymnastics class since they don't allow anyone to watch but here is a picture of her in her acrobatics class. (not the best picture since I took it with my phone from really far away)  Kamree is up on the rope on the right.  She is with the 4-5 yr olds and she gets really bored since they stand in line most of the class time.    There is a mom's acrobatics class in the center  and then a 6-7 year old class on the left.  The teachers wanted to move her to the older kids class but she refused to go without her "girl" teacher in the blue shirt. 

Mason

Both Mason and Morgan are in "futbol" and have practice twice a week and games every weekend.

Not sure who thought white shorts were a good idea.  At least all the fields are turf and not grass.  Mason's team won this game but lost the week before.  The kids here are amazing at ball control and kicking.  We've been told they get their first soccer ball as a baby and practically sleep with it from their infancy. 

 Morgan

Morgan's team can't get enough players so they always have to borrow a couple from Mason's team.  His team is good but the teams they have played have been amazing.  This picture was taken at our team's goal side but it was one of the few times we could even get close enough to attempt a goal.

Futbol/Soccer is obviously more serious here than in the US.  The teams play for 9 months straight instead of just one season, they supply uniforms, practice uniforms, warm-up uniforms, shared water bottles etc.  However, as serious as it is here very few families go to watch the games and when Mason's are in our town most parents stand behind the fence of the field and just talk to each other. We very rarely hear shouting from the side.  Morgan's games are always in a town 15 minutes away and so far we have been the only family watching with just a handful of other parents for both teams. 

  Kaiya

After many years of waiting, Kaiya is finally taking flute at the town's music school.  Her flute lessons are really expensive and she is required to take an additional group music class which is an additional hour.

Mum

I have started working at the school as an English Assistant for the first grade.  I wasn't looking for a job but the vice principal asked, nearly begging, if I would since they were short 2 English Assistants.

  There are 6 of us from the US helping out with the English teachers to help the kids learn correct English. I mostly just walk around the classroom helping the kids like I did as a volunteer but here I get paid for it.  I also like that I get to see my kids at school.    They learn British English and the British ways of spelling words (ie. I am my kids' "mum" not mom) so I am learning a lot too.  I also help the English PE teacher.  I am supposed to correct his(their) grammar when he says things incorrectly but since I am still new I haven't tackled that skill yet.  I also did not say anything when he paired the kids up and told them to massage each other's heads to help them relax.  This was the day after an announcement that lice was going around the school.  I thought shoulders would have been a little more appropriate and less messy. 

 

Downtown Madrid

Saturday after Morgan's futbol game we went into Madrid for another play date and thought it was odd that the normally clean city .....

...was covered with trash everywhere we looked.  We assumed there must have just been a strong wind that scattered it, but we soon noticed that next to all the garbage cans were piles of garbage that hadn't blown away.  (It was a lot worse than this picture shows but I was taking the pictures while we were driving)

 (This wasn't the best example either) We were later informed that the garbage men had been on strike for 2 weeks.  Apparently the garbage men are dumping the garbage cans out on the sidewalks instead of dumping them into their trucks.

We met at a park and since it was quite cold we played some "futbol" to warm up.  By the end of the game all coats and jackets had been shed. 

When it began to rain we walked over to this Naval museum full of parts of old ships, ship replicas, paintings, uniforms, cannons, swords, guns, loot and other artifacts.

Spain was one of the leading naval powers in the Golden Age of Sail. It owned much of the New World and scattered colonies around the globe.  It protected its interests with a large fleet of warships

Halloweeen in Spain

 Before moving to Spain we heard that kids don't trick or treat here.  The school had asked the kids to wear black or dark blue to school to represent the night or orange to represent the pumpkin on Halloween day and we assumed that would be the extent of Halloween outside of our home.  Fortunately, I found out just a week before Halloween that our town does participate in trick or treating and our kids were ecstatic when I told them.

We mostly used what we had at home for costumes and purchased just Kamree's hat, Kaiya's wings and mask.  Everyone decided on Halloween day what they were going to be except for Kamree.  She wore her costume to school because she was so excited and was one of about 3 kids in the entire school dressed up. 

Most of the kids here wore scary costumes perhaps because that is all that is sold in the stores.  When the kids went out trick or treating there were some kids that weren't dressed up at all and many were barely dressed up with just scary make-up.  We saw no princesses, or superheroes, but lots of witches, vampires and zombies.  



The candy haul was definitely different from what the kids are used to: Unwrapped candy, no chocolate except for chocolate Easter eggs, breath mints and cough drops.  It made the thought of raiding the kids treat bags while they are asleep not too tempting. 

 

 "Trick or Treating" here is done a little differently since it is so new.  Instead of "Trick or Treat" it is "Truco o Trato", and only about 1 in 10-15 houses participated, many gave a handful of candy instead of just one or two.    We only had about 25 kids come by our house.   The kids that came to our house would hold out their hands for me to fill and then they would take their handful to a parent that was waiting with a bag, usually a very small grocery bag.  Some kids had no bags and just started eating the candy or would stick it in their pockets.   There were several older kids that came including a couple that seemed to be close to 20.  

 

"Celebración de las Razas"

The Saturday before Halloween, when most wards in the US were having Halloween parties, our ward had a "Celebration of the Races" party.  We all brought food from our home countries and many did traditional dances which they made us promise to do the next year.  This girl is from Spain and she did a great Flamenco dance.  The flags in the background show all the countries represented in our ward. 

Here are most of the people that participated in the dancing program.  The party was supposed to start at 6 but didn't until 7 and the program was before the food so needless to say we were starving by the time we ate at 8pm. The food was cold, but most was still really tasty.    FYI this room is also where we have our Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Relief Society.

When we were leaving, some of the missionaries intercepted us and informed us that our vehicles  were all blocked in.  There was a concert across from the church and apparently not enough parking spots.  The entrance and exit to this dirt overflow parking lot were blocked by cars.   It seems there aren't many rules when it comes to parking in Spain-pictures to come soon in another post!  Brent and the elders pushed this black car back so one set of elders could get their car parked next to it out and then we followed and another set of missionaries after us.

Parque Juan Carlos 1

Clara, Morgan, Isaac, Kamree and Kyle.

November 1st is All Saints Day and we all had the day off which went perfectly with a late Halloween night.  We met up with our Madrid American friends at another one of the great big huge Madrid Parks.  We barely saw any of it, but we found plenty to entertain us for 6 hours.  

Kaiya, Mason, Isaac, Morgan, Clara, Kyle, and Kamee. 

Mason on the pinky finger!



Morgan and Isaac jumping right into it!  Notice the olive trees in the background.  They were everywhere at the park and were loaded with unripe olives. 





 


A very candid photo of Kamree and Hailey from the other side of the playground. 



After the kids played for several hours we began a great game of Ultimate Frisbee with all the adults and all the kids except Molly the darling little munchkin!



Hmm?  Morgan and Isaac, the cool kids!

 

On the way home we enjoyed a beautiful sunset that filled the sky.