Our Happy Holidays

After our cruise the kids were worried that they wouldn't have much to look forward to, except for Kamree.  We had made plans to go ice skating with a couple families from church the week after the cruise and Kamree seemed more excited for that than for Christmas or the cruise.  

The 2 hour session was half a day too short for this little ice queen.

Morgan and Isaac are on the left and the Jessops are on the right finishing their Spanishly thick hot chocolate before returning to the ice.   

A few nights before Christmas we went to our new ward Christmas dinner and longed for our old ward Christmas parties with great food, Santa and the Three Kings handing out gifts. After waiting til 8:30, 1/2 an hour after the start time the very short program began, followed by the food  which consisted of a plate of ice cold fries, a cold piece of fried chicken, various salads, and a piece of bread. The salad was the best part depending on which one you were served.

The night before Christmas eve the kids spent the usual cozy night slumber party around the tree

Since the weather on Christmas day was so beautiful we met up with some friends to try out some new toys at the park. It wasn't long before Brent and Kaiya got in trouble for rollerblading around the running path since they were older than 11.  

The sisters came over for dinner on Christmas evening.  Kaiya got braces on just a couple of days before Christmas and had a hard time doing much of anything with her mouth let alone smile. 

The next morning my cousin Mike and his family flew in for a visit.  

It was a little crowded with 11 people in our small 4 bed 2 bath apartment, but it worked out fine and we all had a great time. Kamree and Kayla never ceased playing even if it was right in the entry to the family room.  

The day after they arrived we went to our early 9 am church and then took off for a few days in southern Spain.  We briefly stopped here in Consuegra.

I asked Mike to turn off his headlights while I took this picture of the windmills, but forgot to have him turn off his car interior lights. Can I blame the out of focus on that? 

We stayed in the Jaen province in Baeza, a quiet little village.

We stayed at a very nicely remodeled monastery with a fantastic breakfast.  Unfortunately, Kaiya could not eat much in the mornings due to the pain her brackets caused the inside of her mouth..

Baeza was quaint and small enough to quickly explore

Our first full day we drove over to Cordoba to see the castle and the Mesquita.  Of course the castle was closed since it was Monday, also the synagogue.  

Fortunately the Mesquita was open for Mike and his family.  We didn't join them since it is pricey and we have been before. Instead we wandered the streets of the historic city center.

 

After Mike and his family finished at the Mesquita we walked through this Inquisition Museum or torture gallery from the most gruesome periods of our history. Mike's dark side had asked us when he first arrived if we had ever seen a torture museum or a dungeon.

 

The place was filled with every sick and cruel torture device you could or couldn't imagine that were used by the criminal courts during the 13th-19th centuries

I think this was a stretching table.  These barbaric penalties were imposed for petty crimes, differences of belief or other equally unreasonable causes which often defy explanation. We didn't take pictures of the most gruesome, it was enough to briefly see them once.

This was likely the least barbaric torture we found.  The person would be sentenced to a barrel having to sleep, eat, do their business and live in it in front of the villagers for a set amount of time.   These means of torture and humiliation were inflicted upon thousands of European citizens throughout a period of about 700 years.

Before leaving we had to recreate our family photo from two years ago in front of the old waterwheel and the 1st century Roman bridge. Kaiya's height was out of line this year.

This is the photo from two years ago with better smiles because our friend yelled "toilet" right before snapping it.

The following day Mike and his family had tickets to the Alhambra in Granada which took them away the entire day.   We took our time getting out of bed and out the door, but eventually made it to Úbeda, the neighboring village.

Úbeda is partially surrounded by these 11th-13th century walls.

The historical areas in Spain are not always respected as they should be.

"Sacra Capilla del Salvador" is a beautifully detailed Renaissance church built in the 16th century as a pantheon to house the tombs of the nobles.

The chapel del Salvador on the left and the 16th century Hospital de Santiago on the right. I loved the pebble designed flooring found throughout the village.  

Jaen province is the largest producer of olive oil in Spain and also world-wide..  Jaen has more than 60 million olive trees, no wonder everywhere we went there were mountains of olive trees.

We felt it appropriate to visit an olive oil plant while in Jaen. We found a plant willing to give us a tour which besides thorough, and insightful, it was quite interesting.

At the end of the free tour we were each given

a small bottle of olive oil and then we bought a 

couple of large bottles for only a couple of euros.  

We might have to start bathing in it.

 

On our way home we took a detour for a little castle visit. Calatrava la Nueva is a 13th century castle and convent built to replace an old Calatrava castle.

As we should have expected since it was the day before a holiday (day before New Years Eve)  they were closed.  I swear the Spanish tourist sights are closed more than they are open.  

We didn't want to leave empty handed so we decided to explore the perimeter of the castle.

The place was so massive that we got bored after a 3rd of the way around.

And so massive that Morgan needed a rest.

 

No locked castle gate could keep Morgan and Mike out once they found an easy access. I was following until I realized how much harder it was going to be to climb out vs. getting in (one difference between boys and girls).  Allegedly it was quite amazing on the inside or so we were told.

The next day was New Year's Eve which we didn't neglect.  We had tons of junk to eat, lots of games to play and we watched the countdown on TV while eating our 12 grapes and we then let the fireworks begin.

On New Years day we took a walk to Bravo Murillo to do a little shopping near our house.  It seems everyone else knew that nothing would be open.  What normally is wall to street people and continuous traffic jams felt like an eerie ghost town.

While playing inside we heard some drums down below and we all darted to the windows and doors to have a look. 

It was nothing more than a Chinese dragon and a few accessories, but still fun to watch. We thought they might have been practicing for the large Three Kings Day parade in a couple of days.

The last day of Mike's visit the four adults spent the evening at a dinner and flamenco show.

The food was fantastic.  This was the appetizer and "primeros" first course.  The next day Mike and his family left.

After Santa and New Years come the Three Kings!

The 5th of December is always the highly anticipated Three Kings Day parade (the night before the Three Kings Day).  We walked past the floats as they were lining up several hours before it was to begin on our way to our friends' home to watch it on TV.

After a few minutes of watching it on TV some of us decided to go be part of the action since it was just a few blocks away. You need to arrive hours early if  you don't want to stand behind the ladders, unless you are Morgan, Clara and Isaac who are squirmy enough to squeeze through this barricade to put themselves among the front lines.

The parade had the usual floats plus a lady that floats with the help of  helium.  We all talked about how we would pay to have that job.  

We thought the floating lady was the highlight, but not so fast; of course the kings were what everyone came to see.  The three kings, until this year arrived on camels but thanks to the animal rights activists they each arrived on their own extravagant float- this was just one king and his court.