Christmas Family Foto

 Even though we won't hand out these Christmas picture cards this year to about 100 people, we decided to keep up the tradition. We have discovered that a family Christmas picture card might be more of a Canadian thing, or North American thing, not so much a Spanish thing. So we are enjoying handing out a few to people here and they are pleasantly surprised.

The background didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. We have been driving and walking past all of these stone fences everywhere we go here. They are much more impressive than the pictures show...isn't that always how it is?

They fascinated me from the start. Many fields here are littered with rocks and stones ~ my farming family would cringe! So I guess they have decided to do like the saying "if the world gives you lemons, make lemonade." The soil here gave rocks, so they made rock fences. Some of them go on for miles and miles. And they are no pushover! Some are even cemented a bit on top, so you know they plan to leave them there for a good long time. They may even have been there for centuries already. And to think they were likely all stacked and piled by hand! I have no idea how long that must have taken.

Anyway, that's just one of my small obsessions shared with you, perhaps made way more interesting by perching our favourite kids on top :)

Now to add a Christmas parallel so that this also becomes our Christmas Greeting post...
We've been reading Jotham's Journey as a family advent thing. It's a story written about a boy living around the time of the First Christmas. I've been reminded of the people of that day, believing there would someday be a Messiah. Some had given up hope; some kept believing; some thought it would be in their lifetime; others long before them had thought it would be in their lifetime. Some kept up their diligent following of their Creator to the best of their ability; others had turned their following into a religion or even into a business; still others into a misguided following of rules instead of following the Creator. The stone fence makes me think of those that remained steady, faithful, diligent, waiting for generations for their Messiah. Some stone fence builders may have started a fence, but their kids or their grandkids kept working at it after they were gone. My hope and prayer this Christmas season is that we will be found faithful and diligent, to continue being faithful and diligent as our families have, and then to teach our children how to be faithful and diligent. Or perhaps you have been chosen to start a long line of faithful and diligent Christ followers.

Because we have an amazing Reason to Celebrate the Season,

we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Birthday Week

December is always a busy month for most people, but our lives are further blessed with two December birthdays in our family to boot. Add another three birthdays in extended fams and December is just one party after another. If felt a little weird not to have to plan quite as many parties with extended family, but we continued our own traditions with Braden and Macy.

On their birthday, the birthday person gets to choose the menu for the main meal. Braden chose pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and corn, with a chocolate ice cream log for dessert.

Macy chose pigs in a blanket, veggies and dip, and an ice cream sandwich tower for dessert.

< We interrupt this blog post for an important Photo-Taking Tip. When you are taking a picture, be sure to check the background - not just the subject of the photo. For example, be sure that your background is not a counter laden with dirty dishes or that your beautiful symmetrical Christmas decorations do not form an unwanted set of mountain goat horns on your lovely birthday girl. >

Sheesh, how did I not see that when I took the picture???????? And that garland looks much better in real life!! Seriously...

Today, we also had a 'Friend Party' for Macy. We are thrilled that there are some English-speaking people in our church and the girls have made some good friends. The cake, however, was another disaster. Have I ranted here before that I just can't seem to bake here? Can't figure out some of the ingredients that are different, some of the different measurements/quantities; can't figure out the temperature, where to put the rack in the oven. BUT, good thing kids will eat anything and you can salvage almost anything with candy.

Before:
I even tried a cake mix this time, so I wouldn't have to fiddle with ingredients and quantities. It was cool, too...not just an "Add water and stir" cake mix. It was the batter already stirred, like a ganache, and I just squished it into the pan. What could go wrong? I'll tell you: the edges were over-done, the middle under-done and it stuck to my "well-greased" pan!

After:

After whipped cream, licorice, M&Ms and much other candy. I was a hero.

P.S. We ate the cake and ice cream and then promptly spent the rest of the afternoon outside, running off the sugar high.
P.P.S. It was plus 10 degrees Celsius and sunny here today ~ NOT bragging...just sayin' :)

Tastes of Home

With Christmas getting closer, and starting to think about what we may be missing, maybe we just needed to be reminded of a few things that are NOT so different here.

Rayna lost another tooth; baby teeth fall out, adult teeth grow in. She puts her old tooth under her pillow and, ever so slightly different here, Ratoncito Perez (a mouse instead of a fairy) takes it and replaces it with money and/or a candy.

Operation Christmas Child ~ like they do every year at home, each of our kids filled a shoebox for a needy child somewhere else in the world. Our church here in Spain collected them last Sunday, just like our church in Canada.

It snowed in La Granja! Just as I was gloating on Facebook that Manitoba was in full winter mode and we were sunny and 15 degrees, Rayna prayed for snow. The very next evening the thermometer fell to minus 2 and there was a thin blanket of the beautiful white stuff on top of the green grass. Our kids were giddy and played in all 5 cm of it for hours. They were getting a little bummed that it was not going to feel like Christmas here without snow. They don't decorate or start the festivities nearly as early here as in North America. There is no giant leap from Halloween to Christmas at midnight on October 31. The Christmas vibe only began towards the latter half of November. But now, in our house, the Christmas tunes are blaring, the decorations are up and Wish Lists are being finalized.

Okay, the final item does not really fit into the theme, but we must tell you about our Once in a Lifetime experience this weekend. The girls, Isabelle and I went to Madrid to the Arteria theatre and saw the live musical production of The Sound of Music!

Yes, it was all in Spanish, but when you know the musical backwards and forwards by heart, and played the part of Brigitta way back in the early 80's, it really doesn't matter what language they are speaking and singing in. It still brought me to tears on more than one occasion. It was part of Macy's magic birthday (turning 10 on the 10th) and she claimed it was "the best thing EVER"!

Almost as exciting as the show, was taking the "fast train" which travelled at 249 km/h and got us to Madrid in less than 28 minutes. And we Manitobans also had our very first ride on a subway. No picture quite did justice to the theatre, but you get the idea. All around, a night to remember!