Holiday's in Spain

Hey Everybody, It's been a while! I haven't written since before the holidays, so this will be a little update post on Christmas, New Years, and Kings Day.

Meeting my new golden Retrievers Rally and Tally

Christmas, I guess you could say the most important holiday in America. Here, It consists of huge family get-togethers, and maybe one or two small presents. I think if anything, it compares more to America's thanksgiving. So Christmas Eve night, I skyped my family from about 7:30-9pm. While we were skyping, my families annual christmas eve pajama party was going on in the background. It was great, people would pop in and say hi to me, show me their kids, tell me about their christmas plans, it was like I was really there. I even got to virtually meet my new golden retriever puppies Rally and Tally. So, I left the house a little bummed, but I was ready for my first christmas in Spain. So Marta and Irene and Alba's dad are divorced, therefore holidays are always split up. This year, Irene and Alba spent their Christmas with their Dad. I had the choice, but I ultimately decided that Marta is my family here, and I want to be surrounded by the closest people I have during the holidays. We ended up having Christmas Eve dinner with just my Aunt Laura and my Grandma. It was really small, but I really loved the quality time. I know my aunt and grandma here really well, so together, we all had a lot of fun. And I loved that I got to spend it with adults, because Mom and Dad usually still stick me at the kids table for family gatherings. My grandma prepared a huge meal, and of course I made the mistake that I always do. I always see a ton of food, and stuff myself to the max, then an hour later, they bring out the actual meal, the second course. Of course I eat that too. And I think I ate a sufficient amount of both Turron and Ham, just about enough for the rest of my life. Then on Christmas day, I woke up at 1am, after getting home around 4:30am (which is what time I normally wake up on Christmas in America). We literally just repeated the same exact thing on Christmas, but with the entire family. More ham, more turron, more people. It was amazing, and a Christmas that I will never forget.

Our Christmas Tree

Christmas Eve with Laura

New Years Eve!

New Years, In America I feel like more than anything it is a holiday celebrated between friends. My parents go to their friends houses, and I go to mine, we haven't celebrated a new years together, since I was a little kid. The other thing that I noticed is that in America, a lot of the party and celebrating begins before 12, but here everyone has dinner with their families until 1 or 2, then goes out and celebrates until breakfast time. Now there is this huge tradition, which is that at 12, the first 12 seconds of the new year, for each second, you have to stuff a grape into your mouth. By 12:00:12 you have a mouth full of grapes, and you are trying to kiss everyone a happy new year. I know for a fact that I will always remember this new year's eve, it felt like my entire year flashed in front of my eyes in a matter of seconds. I remembered how lucky I am to be where I am, and most of all how grateful I am for the people that I have in my life. I was in tears, and Marta comes up to me and gave me a hug and said "Happy tears or sad tears?" I swallowed my grapes, and let out "Happy, I am so glad to be here with your family, I love you all so much." And then we hugged, because I really am happy. That dinner felt like dinner with my family. Not in comparison to my family in America, but my family. I felt like family. Later that night, Irene and I went out. We didn't go full out, but we did hang out in La Flecha (my neighborhood) with some friends until about 4 in the morning. The next morning, I woke up to churros and chocolate, so basically I woke up pretty easily for only getting 4 hours of sleep. 

FELIZ ANO NUEVO

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Kings Day, Now this is like Christmas in America. So I am extremely lazy and a little gray on the actual history of "Los Reyes Magos", so here's a link. http://www.ctspanish.com/christmas/threekings.htm

Los Reyes Magos han venido!

Pretty much the same concept of Christmas, except it occurs twelve days after, and there are three kings instead of a fat ancient man in red and white fur. So Kings Day for me was kind of weird. I dont know if maybe it was just my exhaustion from Christmas and New Years carrying over, or maybe just the fact that my whole life January 6th, has always just been January 6th, but I couldn't really get very spirited. I was seeing the kids, acting abnormally good so that the kings would bring them a lot of presents, then I saw them putting out cookies and milk for them, then I saw how easily they got into bed, I was actually yelled at a few times for not going to sleep at 9:30 by my little cousin Iker. At around 11, I snuck downstairs and I helped the adults wrap presents. For the first time ever, I was not considered a kid. I was an adult, watching all of the behind the scenes, and it was kind of sad. I know that is crazy, because I am almost seventeen years old, but to look at how much I've grown up within just one year, it is mind blowing. I know it is European culture, which is that kids here grow up a lot faster than kids in America do, but the fact is that I am growing up. And while completely frightening, it is also unbelievably exciting. The next morning, we all woke up to open presents, hang out with family, and just eat even more food. Also, the night before Kings Day, we went to watch a parade in La Flecha, literally just floats full of kids throwing candy. 

Roscon de Reyes

Iker y Laura

Overall, a very exciting, hectic, and emotional holiday season. And after everything that happened over those two weeks, I now feel closer than ever with my host family. To top it off, my break off of school was a complete week longer than everyone in America. It was amazing, and a Christmas, New Years, and Kings day that I will never be able to forget. And hey Mom and Dad, we officially celebrate Kings Day. 

I included some photos but I also have a photo post, be sure to check that out here.

Love you all so much, more update posts to come!