Lots of Birthdays in December/January!

On December 7th we celebrated David's 9th birthday. It fell on a Sunday this year but it was a 3 day weekend with the following Monday off (Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion). His uncle Pepito and his 2 children, Claudia and Mateo were here from Madrid. The whole family got together for cake at our house and then we all went to the movies to see the new Disney/Pixar movie, Bolt. The very next day we celebrated Ana's birthday, with a few more candles on the cake (she's 2 years older than Juan), but she looks younger. She wanted to make sure we put all 45 candles on her cake. I like that - the older you get, the brighter the cake! She was very excited that we were here to celebrate these special days together. In December was also Natalia's "santo". Here, you also celebrate your saint's namesake, which constitutes more gift-giving. Esteban and David caught on to this real quick. Unfortunately theirs are also in December. San Esteban is December 26th and David went through his calendar until he found his fell on December 29th. We took them both out for Chocolate con Churros for breakfast as our gift. Pablo and David both had Christmas shows at their school. We invited the grandparents, Melina and Pepe to see Pablo sing with his class and David play the recorder. For Juan's birthday, Ana volunteered to stay home with the kids so that Juan and I could go to Granada to see a concert (Carlos Zarate and friends) on the evening of the 20th. He plays flamenco guitar with local Morrocan musicians. We stayed in a great new hotel AH Granada with views of the snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Juan connected with the Morrocan musicians and will be playing with them here.
We then celebrated with the family on the 21st with his favorite homemade cake that his mom makes. He got very nice gifts but one was especially nice because it also involved "me". Natalia and Oscar gave us a gift certificate to Nagomi Spa for a hydro-massage. It was my early birthday present too. The gift also included childcare!! But wait, there are MORE birthday celebrations. My mommy-in-law and I share the same b-day on Jan. 7th. It was a nice sunny day so we went for a late morning walk near the beach. We then decided to head out of town for lunch to the nearby rural village called Casabermeja for some traditional country cooking - their speciality, "migas" (fried bread crumbs). We had our own private room with a fireplace (it's chillier inland). Tita Cristina, Oscar, Natalia and Lena all joined us. It was a great birthday!!