The Three Kings, our three “roscones” and the last but one day of Christmas

The dining room table laid for the Three Kings' lunch

Olivia smiling at her Mother after lunch

Sarita guapa looking realy guapa with the paper hat from her cracker. She will be going back to China on 15th January.

Hi

Well today is the last official day of Christmas and it is the Three Kings’ Day which is much celebrated in Spain and is the day when most Spaniards exchange gifts. However Father Christmas has become more and more important in the last 10 or 15 years and so some people exchange gifts now on the 24th but the for the most traditional Spaniards, today, the 6th of January is as important as ever.

In this household we celebrate everything there is to celebrate, so today we had the traditional “Roscón de Reyes” for breakfast. The roscón is a sweet brioche like cake shaped in a circle and decorated with crystallised fruit. It always hides a surprise which is usually the figure of a King. Tradition has it that whoever finds it pays for the roscón - well Olivia found 2, so ... Actually this year we have ended up with 3 roscones; one Eladio and my Father bought with chocolate in the middle, one I bought yesterday at a favourite pastry shop and on top of that we got given one by José Antonio and Sara who came for lunch today. It’s quite obvious we are going to get sick and tired of it very soon.

Most of our presents come on the 25th, but some always find their way under our tree on the 6th in the morning , so the girls and Eladio had a little something to open this morning. My little something came yesterday from Eladio when we went to exchange the camera he had bought me for Christmas for a higher end version – you will notice the difference in the quality of the pics in this Blog from now on, I hope. Thanks darling for your generosity.

Lunch, was the last festive lunch of the Christmas Season and Susi and I went all out to lay a beautiful table with lovely food. Being very unoriginal, I prepared a typical English Christmas lunch, roast turkey with all the trimmings. Just look how beautiful the dining room table looked. We used my great-grandmother’s blue china dinner service which we realised later could not go in the dishwasher!!

Well I say today is the last official day of Christmas but actually this year there will be one more Christmas celebration and that will be the annual dinner tomorrow night at Julio’s house when this whole family – and we are 6 including Oli’s boyfriend, José Luis – and Fátima descend on his bachelor flat in downtown Madrid for the best party of the season. There we will pull the last crackers and exchange the last of this year’s presents.

And that then really will be the end of Christmas.

Greetings to you all my friends and, once again, here’s to a superb new year for us all.

Masha

New Year's Eve in León - the 12 grapes and 60 kisses!

Miguel and I

Alicia (my goddaughter), Susi and Sara (Salita Guapa)

Eladio and our beautiful daughter Olivia

Pili and Andrés in the Chinese hat

Eladio and his Mother at the Palacio de Bornos
Hello again

On Saturday we left in 2 cars to go to León for New Year’s Eve. On the way, Eladio, his Mother, my Father, Susi and I stopped off for a light lunch at our favourite place on the way to León called Palacio de Bornos where they produce the best white wine in Spain. http://bodegasdecastilla.com/bornos_osc/catalog/
Lunch was jamón, chorizo, lomo + queso washed down by that superb white wine we specially love called Colagón. Then after a coffee, we drove on to León to meet up with the rest of the family.

This year Eladio, my Father and I stayed at Alejandro’s new house. Susi stayed with her cousin Laura and Oli and José Luis stayed at Marisa’s house.

The dinner was held at a different restaurant from previous years. We had been going to Amancio’s for at least the last 5 or 6 years and it was time for a change. The place was called Zuloaga and was in the heart of the historical centre of León, near the Cathedral. We had a private dining room which, as we were 30 people, was very much appreciated. As usual the 2 generations sat on separate ends of the table but I ended up sitting in between both of them, next to my beloved nephew Miguel and in front of Oli, José Luis and my husband Eladio.

The evening was raucous as usual because we are so loud and just love family reunions. The menu was the same as ever – it never changes in León and consists basically of cold cuts (entremeses) and roast lamb. And, of course, the highlight of New Years Eve parties in Spain is the eating of grapes on each of the 12 chimes at midnight. Then people drink champagne (Cava, of course, here) and kiss each other on both cheeks. When you are 30 people, that means each person gets kissed 60 times and you kiss everyone 60 times, so quite a lot of kissing went on at our dinner.

We went to bed way past 3 o’clock and slept more or less straight through to midday. Alejandro was a superb host and we shall definitely be staying at his house again.

We all left León after lunch as tomorrow is a working day. So here I am at my computer just before midnight keeping my blog up to date – mostly for my dear brother-in-law, Andrés, who will probably be the first person to read it tomorrow morning as he will be avid to see the photos. One of the best ones is of him with his wife and Eladio’s sister, Pili. He is wearing the mandarin hat and it wasn’t even at the party, it was the afternoon before. Andrés is such a great party animal and none of our family parties would be the same without him.

Well, cheers everyone and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Masha

An outing to the Retiro and an encounter with a Gypsy

Hi again.

Today Eladio and I took my Father and his Mother on an outing to the Retiro. The Retiro is Madrid’s “Hyde Park” and is always fun to visit. There are so many people from so many places, lots of street attractions like puppet shows or people playing music.

It was a sunny day and there were still some leaves on the trees, quite something for the end of December. Above are pictures of Eladio and me with his Mother and my Father.

And while we were enjoying a coffee opposite the lake, a gypsy woman approached us and before we knew it she was reading our hands. I enjoyed every minute of it but Eladio was trying to shoo her away. Her name was Susana. She told me I would live a long life, had had some bad luck in the past but would be very lucky now in the future. She also told me many people envied me which didn’t surprise me. She then read Eladio’s hand and told us he was a solid serious and very hard working person and that he would be a grandfather of twins!!!! (Susi later told me a gypsy had once told her she would have twins, so let’s look out!!). The gypsy then read my Mother-in-law’s hand and said she would also live a long time – well that’s easy to say I suppose as she is already 85!! About my Father she said the same and that he was a man of “capital” and that he had lost nearly every one dear to him which again was true. The only thing she got wrong was when she said my husband had had lots of women before me. Little did she know that I was the first!!!

What a laugh. Sandy darling if you read this you may well remember the two of us having our fortune told in the Retiro some 15 to 20 years ago, just before you went to work in Brussels and I joined Motorola. Wow was that fortune teller right with his soothsaying.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and this family will be going to León once again to see the new year in with Eladio’s enormous family. This year we will be changing restaurants .- THANK YOU YOLI –

So my next post will be all about that. Rest assured we will be all trying on the newly acquired wigs and will have a great laugh all together.

Happy New Year friends and family.

All my love
Masha

Dinner at Fátima’s

From left to right: me: Augustin, Fátima and Julio

Anselme and Fátima junior watching the film
Hi again

Yesterday came another Christmas celebratory meal, this time at my best friend, Fátima’s house. The dinner was organised for Julio, Augustin and family, Eladio and myself. Augustin of French origin (plus some German or Swedish, can’t quite remember – suffice it to say Augustin is very international), was a former colleague of ours at Nokia until he got married to Eva and they went to live in Paris – well California first. Since then he has had 2 children, Anselme who is now 4 and a little girl who is 5 months old.

So dinner was a lot about old times but also catching up on each other’s news. Unfortunately Eva and the baby couldn’t come because the baby was teething but we did get to see Anselme who spent the evening playing with Fátima’s daughter, also called Fátima.

Whilst we had dinner – and a lovely one too, specially the ham and the Tiramisú – Fátima’s speciality, the 2 kids watched “Looking for Nemo” which gave us all a chance to natter about old times but actually, as Julio pointed out, it was as if time had not passed by as we felt just as close as ever.

I hadn’t seen Augustin since the 3GSM Congress in Cannes in February 2004, which was really some time ago, but I must admit he looked no different and as good looking as ever.

It was great to see you again Augustín and thanks Fátima for the great dinner.

And above are a couple of pictures of the evening to illustrate this post.

Cheers till New Year’s Eve when I will be writing my next post.

Masha

Christmas Day 2006 and the English traditions

The tree with all the presents

The table laid for Christmas lunch

Hi again

Christmas day is certainly the favourite day of the year in our family and this year was going to be no less, specially as it was to be our first Christmas in El Bosque. And this year we had Eladio’s Mother here which made it even more special.

If we celebrate Christmas Eve the Spanish way, we certainly celebrate Christmas Day the English way with no concession to change of any sort. The tradition comes from my Grandmother, my Father’s Mother, who, by way of my own experience from childhood, influenced the way I organise Christmas in this household and no doubt the same will happen to my own daughters.

Christmas Day always starts with the girls opening their stockings (knitted by my Mother when they were small) in one of their rooms together. The contents are just small tokens as the real presents come later. That is followed by breakfast all together in the dining room with the best china and a table groaning with good breakfast fare. Then the rule is we all get washed and dressed and join up around the Christmas tree to open the presents. Present opening can only begin when the Christmas Carol tape is on – it’s now over 20 years old and is getting a bit past it. Also very important for this “ceremony” is a good box of chocolates, preferably Cadburys.

The opening of the presents can take over an hour as there are more than 5 of us and each of us has more than one present for all the members of the family. Also to wind out the process even longer, only one present can be opened at a time so we all get to see what everyone has got and ooh and aah at everything. I can’t complain this year as I got a digital camera from Eladio (remember the other one was run over by Andy’s car), some Silver Rain EDT from my Father, more cosmetics, an Accessorise bag (black and white and so in fashion) from Susi and some lovely place mats and napkin holders from Oli. Everyone else seemed pretty happy too.

After the present opening came the preparations for the lunch which is always the same and cannot vary: turkey with sage and onion stuffing and cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts and roast potatoes plus the eternal English gravy followed by Christmas pudding and white sauce heavily laced with brandy. And, of course, there are crackers which can only be pulled after the desert.

The only change to the traditional English Christmas day is that we have introduced the Spanish national sport, the much loved and needed Siesta! This now takes place after the copious lunch and is appreciated by us all.

The day finishes with a family walk, a light dinner or no dinner and a film in the evening. This year it was one by Almodóvar, “All about my Mother”. I wonder what my English grandmother would have said about that?

All in all a great Christmas day. And here are some pictures of the great day taken with my new digital camera.

Cheers/Masha

Christmas Eve / Nochebuena 2006

The family around the Christmas table.

Another view of the family around the Christmas table.

Juan and Oli looking great!

Juan, Sarita, the Abuela and Olivia looking cool!

José Antonio and his Mother, Ernestina - "la abuela" - they look like something from the Adam's family!

Hi everyone.

How is your Christmas going?

Ours is great as we love Christmas in this house. This is the first Christmas spent in our lovely new home. And Christmas Eve this year was very special not only because of that but because we had Eladio’s Mother with us. For Eladio it must have been the first time in more than 20 years. We also had the pleasure of the company of Eladio’s beloved brother and family who live in Madrid, José Antonio, his wife Dolores and their kids, Miguel (now living in London and working for Citibank), Sarita (guapa) – now living in China and Juan (studying and working for the TV channel, Cuatro).

So it was a real family reunion over the Christmas Dinner. Christmas Eve or Nochebuena in Spain is as important as Christmas Day is in the UK. And in our house we actually celebrate them both. We were 11 for dinner and the table was full of good food, crackers and candles. We had made far too much but that’s not a problem as today is Boxing Day (yes we celebrate that too in this house) and the girls’ boyfriends are here for lunch and it will all get eaten.

After the sumptuous dinner, we had champagne and chocolates in the dining room and then started trying on the wigs I had bought in the Plaza Mayor and those Eladio and I got at the Phone House party. It was such fun and we spent a good hour laughing ourselves silly but the hysterics came when Eladio’s Mother tried the wigs on herself. Just have a look at the photos and you will laugh too.

When everyone went and we made our way to bed, I had the final task of taking the girls’ stocking presents out from hiding to put in the Christmas stockings my dear Mother had made for them many years ago when they were very small. Today they are 21 and 22 but tradition dictates that they still get a stocking while they live in this house.

Happy Christmas my dear friends.

All the very best
Masha

Outing to the Christmas Market in the Plaza Mayor

Eladio looking "punky" in his blue wig!

Me and the abuelos at the Plaza Mayor on a very sunny Christmas Eve

Hi everyone and Happy Christmas

On Christmas Eve, in the morning Eladio and I took the “abuelos” (my Father and Eladio’s Mother) to see the Christmas Market at the Plaza Mayor. My “secret agenda” was to buy some fun wigs for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The Plaza Mayor at Christmas holds a market every year where you can buy all sorts of Christmas objects, mostly Christmas trees and Nativity figures but also lots of joke objects.

The abuelos didn’t buy anything but I had a grand time getting wigs, Christmas earrings that light up and a climbing Father Christmas that only up ended working once.

We also had time for tapas in an old fashioned bar in the Plaza where we were served Sangría, calamares and patatas bravas – delicious.

Eladio and I couldn’t resist trying our wigs on before leaving for home.

Cheers
Masha