My Christmas season in Spain was filled with food, family, more food, and more family. I know the memories from these past few weeks will probably be some of the best from my time in Spain. Of course, it was difficult to be away from home for the holidays, but I took the “once in a lifetime opportunity” approach and enjoyed every minute of it.
Christmas cookies:
The Thursday before Christmas, Stephanie came over to make Christmas cookies with me. We actually hadn't planned to meet up that day...or so I thought. We had talked about possibly making cookies, but in the end I thought we had agreed that due to the bus schedules, there wasn't enough time. However, around 6:00, I was out running when I heard someone yell my name, and I turned around to see Stephanie getting off the bus. Stephanie and I live on complete opposite sides of Valencia, and the sheer fact that she managed to get on the right bus to my neighborhood (which only comes once an hour) really impressed me. It was a very weird moment to see her getting off the bus, to say the least. Apparently she had no idea where to get off though, and when she told the bus driver she needed to get off at Mas Camarena (my enormous elliptical shaped neighborhood/small community), he answered, "The whole thing is Mas Camarena!" Stephanie told me she was about to just take the bus back to the city when she saw me running past the bus stop. Ha! It was a very lucky day.
We had a fun night making sugar cookies in the shape of the U.S. and Wisconsin (thanks to some very adorable cookie cutters I brought to Spain) and exchanging our Christmas presents to each other. The cookies turned out great, and my host family loved them, although despite the fact that I told them numerous times they are sugar cookies, they have named them "butter cookies." Hardly any butter is used in Spanish baking, and apparently the amount of butter in the cookies really stood out to them. I was told they taste like "those really buttery Danish cookies." I was going for the classic American sugar cookie, but that works too I guess.
Frosting a U.S. shaped cookie with Nutella
Wisconsin shaped sugar cookies!
Valencia exchange students!Christmas Eve:
On Christmas Eve, the whole family came over for dinner. If you’ve kept up with my blog, I’m sure you know that “whole family” means my host family, mi abuela (my dad’s mom), los yayos (my mom’s parents), mis tíos (my dad’s brother Fran and his wife Ester), and mi primita Julia (Fran and Ester’s daughter). We spent the afternoon getting the house ready, and by the time everyone came it was perfect. Dinner with the family was wonderful, and for dessert we enjoyed a variety of turrón, Spain’s traditional Christmas nougat-type sweet.
my grandma, Ester, and Julia
at the dinner table with my yaya
assorted turrónes and other candiesAfter dinner, it was time for presents. In Spain, presents are usually reserved for Three Kings Day, but since the whole family was over, we did presents on Christmas Eve. A funny story about my presents: in Spain, it seems that everyone wears slippers in the house. I never wore slippers in the U.S.- my house was carpeted, and if I was cold I put on socks. However, my host family continually commented on my lack of slippers. My host mom told me one day she was worried I would “hurt myself” if I didn’t wear them. So for Christmas, I wasn't all that surprised that my host mom gave me a pair of slippers. The funny part came when I heard both of my grandmas whispering after I unwrapped them. “Oh no! I bought her slippers too!” And the other grandma: “You bought her them as well? So did I!” Apparently the news of my bare feet had spread beyond the immediate family.
presents under the treeEveryone stayed until around 2 a.m., when we finally said our Buenas Noches and Felices Navidades and I climbed the stairs for bed. It was a wonderful Christmas with a wonderful family.
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