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?