Christmas in Spain

This was my very first Christmas away from my family.  During the last few years Jonathan and I have usually spent Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family in Buffalo and then drive to Westchester Christmas morning to spend Christmas Day with Jonathan's family.  We have been arranging a Christmas dinner the following weekend with my Mom's side of the family.  We have made plans to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family here.  We were very excited to see the different traditions here and were looking forward to a more relaxed Christmas, without all of the crazy traveling.  Also, my parents separated a few months ago and I was slightly relieved not to be in Buffalo during their first Christmas apart.  Despite my parent's continued close friendship there would no doubt be a strangeness over the holidays with different traditions being made to celebrate the holidays (though I do acknowledge some guilt in leaving my little brother all alone to brave and navigate it all).

The time leading up to Christmas back at home is somewhat exhausting and nauseating (the constant discussion of shopping and Christmas plans, the nausea that comes from 50 too many Christmas cookies being eaten, and the continuous bombardment of Christmas music that starts the day after Halloween).  In Spain Christmas is a religious holiday and Three Kings Day (Jan 6) is more associated with gift giving.  During this last month, the time leading up the holidays, I could hardly discern that it was any different from any other times of the year.  The municipalities put up lights on the lamp posts, reading "Boas Festas" and "Bon Nadal" (Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas respectively in Gallego, the local language spoken here) and you could see a little Christmas tree in the window of about one of every 50 homes you walked by.  Also, in the grocery stores gift baskets, Christmas Candy and desserts, and whole legs of cured ham were displayed.  Other than this, you couldn't really tell it was Christmas. I had to you tube Christmas songs, which when not over consumed, are actually quite lovely to listen to.  Jonathan and I also put up a little tree (about a foot and a half tall) and displayed the Christmas Cards we got in the mail.  Being away from all of the craziness leading up to the holidays (i.e. people literally being trampled for discount televisions) was really nice.  The ability to consume Christmas cheer at my own pace as opposed to having it jammed down my throat was pretty awesome

A few days prior I made Christmas cookie plates and delivered them to all of the family here.  We made traditional cut outs, chocolate shortbread cut outs (mind you I went on a quest to find a cookie cutter but was unsuccessful, so I rolled my dough with an empty wine bottle, made a heart stencil out of cardboard and hand cut every cookie with a knife), shortbread bars spread with strawberry marmalade, peanut butter balls, coconut macaroons, almond Russian snow balls, brownies, and pecan nut brittle.  It was quite a feat.  Everyone seemed to really like them; the dessert culture here is more of cakes than cookies, so I think they liked the foreignness of most of the treats.  All and all it took all evening to deliver them as everyone then invited us in for what grew to be a few bottles of wine and some tapas (including but not limited to: tuna and peppers, mussels, cheese, cured meat, and potato chips).  Needless to say I slept really well that night.  Here are a few pictures of my cookie plates and my darling Booey making his delicious coconut macaroons.

So we were invited to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with everyone here.  In the end, we decided to spend Christmas Eve at Chelo and Gonzalo's house and Christmas Day at Lalo and Aurita's house.  On Christmas Eve dinner is served around 9 or 10pm, so Jonathan and I lounged around the house all day.  I made bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch and we watched a few episodes of the Sopranos (They have the series at the library here, so I've begun renting them.  We've finished the first season.  It's generally fun and entertaining to watch, but not really anything to write home about.  That therapist should have her license taken away).  Before going over to Chelo's Jonathan and I had a few cocktails together and toasted to all of our future Christmases together.  When we arrived at Chelo's the table was already prepped with all different types of prawns and shrimps (unlike the US where there are just shrimp and prawns, some bigger and some smaller, there are a million different names for all of the different types of "shrimp" here) and the kitchen was full of people helping to prepare the second plate.  Marichelo, Martin and I finished setting the table.

Jonathan and I then sat on the couch with Martin and his brother Angel to watch an episode of "Los Simpson", which is still hilarious even after the translation.  Shortly after everyone was seated to start eating the shrimp.  As in many houses here, the TV was left on during dinner, which absolutely drives me nuts.  The way Chelo's house is arranged, the dining room table is in the living room and the table is right in front of the TV.  So when we were all sitting at the table, half of the table was facing the TV and the other half was sitting right in front of it with their backs to it.  This not only bothers me because I think it's kinda rude to be staring at a TV blankly wile eating instead of sharing company, but also because with the TV right behind my head, it's really hard for me to understand people.  I generally have more difficulty understanding people when there are several conversations going on at once, as there would be at a large family dinner like this, but with the added TV sound it was really hard for me.  Throughout most of the dinner Jonathan and I spoke together, though I did discuss potato picking briefly with Gonzalo, which I've invited myself to help with :). 



The second course was then served, which was Bacalao and cabbage as well as roasted chicken with potatoes.  We then spent a long time together over dessert, coffee, and liquors.  Jonathan made a flan to bring, which everyone seemed to like.  There were huge assortments of chocolates, cakes, and walnuts.  We then hurried home around 1am to video chat with our families.  It was nice to talk to all of them.  Generally here, as expected, there is this foreignness with everything I do, but on days like Christmas it seems much stronger and aches a little.  It felt good to talk to our families, like we were less far away.

On Christmas Day we headed over to Lalo's for lunch.  When we arrived the assortment of shrimp was ready on the table and Aurita was in the kitchen finishing up the second plate (Aurita is an amazing cook.  She and Lalo own a bar below their house.  Aurita used to cook, but now due to medical problems doesn't do it anymore.  Lalo now runs the bar, serving drinks and some simple tapas).  We brought Alba, Lalo and Aurita's granddaughter, their daughter Saleta's daughter a colored pencil set and a drawing tablet, which she seemed to really like (Alba is a great artist.  There are a bunch of her paintings hanging in Lalo's home).  We also brought over "snow in a can", which Jonathan's mother mailed us in our Christmas package.  They all got a kick out of it and Alba sat on the couch and played with it for a while.  We then sat down to enjoy the shrimp.

Shortly after we finished the shrimp, Lalo's daughter left with Alba to visit her ex-husband. Lalo's daughter is currently going through a separation with her husband, something that is not as commonplace here.  After this the kind of pain that this was causing the family was pretty evident in the air.  We then sat with Lalo and Aurita to finish lunch (roasted lamb and chicken with red peppers and potatoes) and spoke about life and marriage.  I think Lalo is a very honorable and wise man.  He has never been on a vacation and has worked as a fisherman for all of his life, starting at age 7.  He told us that life is work and that life is hard and that the most important thing in life is family.  When we began discussing marriage Lalo said that couples need to be good to one an other because in the end, they need to take care of one another.  I enjoyed talking with Aurita and Lalo, especially because I was able to understand what they were saying, unlike the night prior.  But there was this air of sadness at their house that was uncomfortable for me.  As we walked back to our apartment from there I missed my family a lot and wished that I could have been with all of them.  We had phone line and internet problems all day, so we weren't able to call them that evening.  We played cards together and watched some movies.  All of the family here was so very generous in inviting us to celebrate Christmas with them and I sincerely don't know how to even begin thanking them for all of the things that they have done for us since we came.  But in the end, I really missed my family this Christmas.  As we went to bed on Christmas night, cuddled up together under the blankets, I must say that I was pretty relieved for Christmas to be over because I knew I'd feel less far away today.