Happy New Year!!

It's amazing to me that it's been over two months since last I wrote.  When we first came here, I naively thought I'd have a lot more time to write and read and run, do yoga, etc.   Not so.   I realized raising 3 kids, with homework and extracurricular activities is very time consuming, no matter where you live.  Also, I've been helping Juan get his business off the ground, accompanying him on school concerts, mostly to take pictures so I can help him update his website in Spanish.  So far, he's had extraordinary feedback.  Schools are very open to what he has to offer and I won't say more since I plan to dedicate another short blog entry on that topic.  I've also been busy with a lengthy translation project which I've just completed (it kept me busy for the past two weeks).  It also took me longer because we've had terrible cold, cough and flu bugs go through our house several times over it seems.  What a drag!!!  Poor Pablo hasn't had a dry nose for more than a week since last October.  Now that he's taking his afternoon nap, I'm seizing the opportunity to catch up on the writing.  We've done a lot in the last couple of months and with my memory the way it is, I need to document. 

I started the following post weeks ago but hadn't finished it until now:  We 

said "Adios" to 2008 with a bang,

 literally and figuratively.  Esteban and his cousins presented us with a fireworks show on the beach.  You can read his blog for more details about the firecrackers.  It was a major highlight of the holidays for him.  For us, it was the first time in our family's history, that the whole family got together for a New Year's Eve dinner at my brother-in-law's oceanfront home- there were 20 of us altogether.  My mother-in-law prepared a delicious turkey meal and the rest of us contributed by bringing a large assortment of appetizers.  There was so much food that we had enough left over to sit around the table once more for lunch on New Year's Day.   

But on New Year's Eve, as we all sat around the dinner table with the

 clamor of passing plates and overlapping conversations, I took a moment to take it all in.  The boys were excited to have their cousins visiting from Madrid, my father-in-law was at the head of the table seeing all 5 of his children and all 9 grandchildren sharing a meal and I thought to myself, "this is what it's all about".  Of course, I missed my own extended family and friends and perhaps some of our own family rituals/traditions, but I surrendered to the moment and enjoyed the wine and company.  After dinner, we all sat/stood around the T.V. to wait for the clock tower in Sol in Madrid to strike 12.  MariCarmen had organized 20 small plates with 12 grapes each for the national tradition- with each bell toll, you eat a grape.  Our family has been doing this in California at 3:oopm on Dec. 31st for the past 17 years, with Juan on the phone giving the signal to everyone.  It was nice to finally celebrate this tradition all together.  Pepito, Juan's brother then took his position as DJ for the evening and we all danced until close to 4am.  We slept in until lunchtime the next day, when we were all called 

to the "party house" for leftovers.  We took our traditional New Year's Day family picture on the beach in front of Pepito's house (usually Del Monte Beach in Monterey.)

Christmas Eve was much quieter.   It was just our family with 

Melina, Pepe and Ana.  My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook and she had a variety of appetizers (soup, shrimp, salmon, ham) plus the main dish "solomillo" (pork roast) with a mango chutney sauce - delicious!!!!   Of course there's always room for the traditional Christmas desserts - turrón de chocolate, mantecados and roscos.   We ended the evening with Christmas carols we'd prepared in English and Spanish.  David played the piano, Esteban the trumpet and Juan played the violin.  Pablo played the tambourine and the rest of us sang along.