As you may have guessed by the title of this post, this is the promised post about Christmas. I suppose I should start as the beginning with with Noche Buena.
Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) is when the main celebration is. The abuelos came over at about 4 or 5-which is basically right after lunch-and started making food. Dunner was at about 10-which is early for a Christmas dinner. I wish I could list off all the things that we ate, but to honest I can not remember it all because there was so much! I know these was cordero (roast lamb), rojos (they are like giant shrimp that are fantastic), bread of course, and much more. Needless to say it was all amazing. The only downside was the family dinner is a formal occasion here, therefore I had to dress up which I am not terribly fond of. Oh well.
After the dinner was the gift giving. Christmas presents are kind of different from in the US because the giving is broken in two. The gifts from "Santa" are given on the 5th of January and are from "Los Reyes Magos" or as we call them "The Three Kings." The other presents are given Noche Buena. Anywho, after dinner and presents we played some poker (I lost 10 cents) and then Miguel, Guillermo, and I went to hang with some friends. Very good night that I will never forget, especially the food.
Noche Vieja (New Years Eve) was basically two days in one. It started out normally enough except for one fact: by three in the afternoon the kitchen was full of cooking smells. Finally it was time to dress up and eat! We had some more rojos, filet mignon, and a bunch of other things that I can not remember.
After dinner played another game of poker (I won some... dont remember how much but I in all of the games we have played I am 1.50€ ahead) but our game was interrupted by midnight. Now in Spain there is no ball that drops (thank god! I have always thought that was the stupidest thing ever.) instead they have a clock tower. And as the bell rings they eat grapes; twelve grapes for twelve chimes of the bell. I do not know if you have ever eaten twelve grapes in twelve seconds, but it is rather comical! Guillermo gagged, almost threw up, and had to spit out all his grapes! Good times.
After the grape eating, we-brothers and I-went over to the house of a friend to party. We stayed there until 11... AM. On the way home we stopped to get churros-which were fantastic-and then crashed when we got home and slept until 5. It was a good time.
Anyway, that was my holiday season. It was definitely unforgettable but now I have to go read some don Quijote before practice. Adios mundo.
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Thank you for sharing your blog. I'm pleased to read of your activities & interesting food you ate during the holidays. I'm so thankful to know that you are happy.
ReplyDeletePepe,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post-I plan to read it to my classes tomorrow. A little lesson on Spanish culture. haha
Sra. Schantz