Just Before Christmas

Fall Hike

In November , the boys planned a "Scout" hike.  They began their hike here and planned to hike through a centuries old village on their way to a lake. 

 

Patones de Arriba

This is part of the old village named "Patones de Arriba". There have been archeological remains found in this area that prove the existence of several different settlements from different eras including that of the Paleolithic era.  The first records date back to 1555.






In 1555 the Kings of Patones fulfilled the functions of mayor and justice of the peace. They governed the town until 1750 when the last King moved to Madrid.



Following is an interesting account  by Don Antonio Ponz in 1781 from Journey around Spain, regarding the Kingdom of Patones:

"About halfway between the towns of Uceda and Torrelaguna and to the left of the road is a large pass in the mountains, which seals a small valley, called " The Place of The Patones " It is the scene of a legend which is as follows: In the unfortunate age in which the Saracens became masters of Spain, we know that many of our inhabitants fled to the mountains and the most hidden nooks and crannies therein. Some good Christian Goths fled to this area, in search of refuge from their fierce and ruthless enemies in this rough and rugged country. Here they found asylum from the worst savagery of Muslim power, maintaining their customs, beliefs and sustaining themselves by hunting, fishing, beekeeping, herding of goats and growing of some rye crop, as they do now.
These men, who were called Patones chose a wise person from a family of integrity to govern and decide their disputes, so were keeping from century to century an hereditary government, calling their chief the "King of the Patones".

This is just above the village on their way back down.  They never made it to the lake since some of the boys had things to get back to, including Morgan's futbol game. 

and Morgan's team finally won a game! 

Thanksgiving

I can't believe I forgot to snap a photo of our too-large for the oven turkey.  This was the only picture I got of out Thanksgiving feast unfortunately.  We invited 4 of the missionaries and one of Brent's co-worker. The co-worker was quite interested in trying all of these new foods he had heard so much about. 

Odds and Ends

We surely miss the American ice cream choices.   (We love it when we go to France because they have pistachio almond and a few other better choices.)   

 and we miss the less cigarette littered sidewalks.

But at least, we have large Paella pans 

and blue lines guiding us to school. 

In the entry of our school, is this super cute Christmas village/ Nativity. Well, it was cute until I looked up-close at the three Wise Men (or the Three Kings).

I wonder if they were trying to be funny or if they thought this was appropriate.   As always, Christmastime is filled up with parties and performances, and this year was no exception.

We kicked off the season with our Madrid friends, the Jessops and Claytons.  The Jessops kindly shared their popcorn ball making tradition with us. Notice the greasy, butter covered hands in preparation for the gooey caramel popcorn. 

Even after the kids' hands were all over this popcorn,

the balls were worth eating, Delish!

Plaza Mayor

The day after making the popcorn balls was a holiday so we all met-up at the Plaza Mayor.   It was lined with booths full of nativity sets.  I've been wanting to get one from Spain and just hadn't until this day. I could have bought several but I held back and bought only 4.
 

There were street performers everywhere.  This guy was one of our favorite statue performers.  I'm sure this was just a bit uncomfortable for him.

 

This Flamenco Dancer was our favorite non-statue performer and there were several.  Notice all our blond kids in the background. 

Puerta del Sol

We fought through extreme crowds, the entire night, which was extremely difficult with 6 adults and 12 children.  We knew we wouldn't be the only ones with this idea, but we didn't expect everyone in Madrid to have had the same idea. 

This is one of many Madrid Palaces, it is above the parking lot where we parked and also above a freeway.

 

Morgan and Kamree's Acrobatic Performance

 Good luck finding them.

Morgan on the silks

 

Kaiya's Flute Concert

She is center stage.

Kamree's Gymnastics Performance

She is just left of center wearing last years uniform.

Our Ward Christmas Party

Sadly Kaiya was too old this year to be a part of the nativity.

 

The Sunday Before Christmas

Our ward never has musical numbers but this day we had 3; the missionaries sang, Kaiya played the flute and David Archuleta sang. 

We received a call that Sunday morning before church from our bishop who secretly told us that David Archuleta was going to perform a musical number at our ward so we might want to arrive early for a better seat.   The very "less active" mission president is a member of our ward and brought him just after picking him up at the airport. 

David Archuleta was scheduled to do a fireside with the 3 Madrid Stakes for the missionaries and the youth.  The youth in our ward were not too excited about it since they had never heard of him.



After he sang in church the girls were a bit more excited about going to the fireside. Here are some of the Young Women as we waited for the fireside to start. As expected, he did a fabulous job!




After church,  Kamree caught this adorable little guy in our living room.  The kids want a pet sooo bad, and he was sooo cute so it was really tempting, but not this Christmas. 

Merry Christmas!