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!