WINTER/EARLY SPRING RECAP

Once again I am way behind in our blog. Although I don´t feel like we live an exceptionally exciting life worthy of a post every day, (plus even if we did, I don´t have the time) we do share many great moments together as a family that I do not want to let go by without a mention. I think the best way to do a recap is through pictures, so below are the highlights of our winter/early spring 2010.

Although we have had an usually long and wet winter and I would even say pretty cold for southern Spain, there were a few days in February we could actually enjoy the sunshine in the park. Every time Leo has a stake meeting we travel almost an hour away to Elche which has a beautiful city park, so while Leo is in the meeting the boys and I play in the park.


City park in Elche, Spain

Brotherly Love

Grass is actually hard to find here so he was a little unsure about the sensation..

Charlie is a great big brother.

In Charlie´s school they celebrated Carnival in February and this year they dressed up as princes and princesses.

A family outing in March to a local beach town called Los Alcazares.

Some more brotherly love.

Charlie was trying to help Clark look at the camara, but he forgot to do the same.

This year we all had boughts of the flu and Charlie, then me, then Clark, then our nephew and then Leo´s sister all had pink eye. See picture above. Clark couln´t open his eye but I wanted a picuture before I helped him. Poor fellow.

Mom, stop taking pictures and help me. (What I am sure Clark would have told me, could he speak.)

In Spain, Father´s day is celebrated on the 19th of March, so I decided to have the boys paint a picture for their dad.

Shopping trip to the famous department store, El Corte Ingles.

After a long day of shoping, what is better than fun in the park.

Once again, Mom stop taking pictures and play with me.

Charlie, cute as ever.

The boys favorite activity lately is to ride on daddy´s back up and down the hall playing cowboy.

The best sherriff in Southeast Spain.

Do you think he has fun?

In March, one Saturday we took a trip to the beach since it was such nice weather. We strolled along the boardwalk, ate lunch next to the sea, played on the beach and collected seashells.

My handsome boys.

What a happy family!

Clark enjoying the sand.

Charlie pretending to be a pirate on a play boat on the beach.

As you can tell this was at the end of the day and Leo was beat, which is the norm these days especially now that he is working even longer hours at work. Now that we don´t see him much during the week, it is even more reason to make the weekends special. I can´t wait to see what the rest of the year holds for our family.

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS PART TWO: THREE KINGS DAY

I am going to take this opportunity in this post to have a teaching moment for those who are not familiar with the Spanish culture. It used to be that Christmas in Spain was just a time to celebrate Christ´s birth and be together as a family. There was no Santa Claus, no present giving, etc. Recently, however, Santa Claus has become very popular and now even Santa Claus flies his sleigh to Spain to deliver gifts. I guess you could blame this change on globalization.

Instead of Santa Claus, up until recently the tradition here was that the Three Wise Men, or Three Kings as they say here, brought the gifts to the children just as they brought the gifts to Jesus. This celebration takes place on the 6th of January. The three wise men´s names are:

Melchor: A white old wise man with a white beard. His gift for Jesus was gold, representing his royal birth.

Gaspar: A brown young wise man. His gift was incense, reprenting the divine nature of Jesus.

Baltasar: A black wise man. His gift was myrrh, representing the suffering and future death of Jesus. (Until recently a Spaniard would paint his face black, but with the influx of imigrants from Africa you occasionally see a genuine black man but it is still common to see a white man painted black. It is not considered politically incorrect here.)

Just as Santa Claus brings toys and gifts to all the good little boys and girls, the Three Kings every year bring toys and gifts to all the good boys and girls reminding them how we should always carry the boy Jesus in our hearts.

Since the Three Kings is a Spanish Tradition and neither Leo or I are from Spain, and Charlie was still too little to know the difference, we did not celebrate the holiday with gifts until this year. So you could say that Charlie was very lucky this year: gifts for Christmas and more gifts a few weeks later. (Don´t worry we did not spoil him too much. We just halved the loot).

To start the celebration of Three Kings Day, on the night of the 5th, every city has a parade in which at the end of the parade the Three Kings arrive. Through out the parade the participants throw candy and toys to the people.

Another interesting tradition that has comeabout here is that since the majority of the people live in apartment buildings, as part of their holiday decor, they hang little figurines of Santa Claus and the Three Kinds climbing up a ladder or a rope from their windows. Since there are no chimneys, the people had to get creative.


Clark and Me at the parade. Clark loved looking at all the people and lights.

Charlie and Leo right up front trying to get more candy and toys.

How the gifts arrive.

The arrival of one of the Kings.

The arrival of another King.

Leo and the kids at the end of the parade with Leo´s mom Yolanda.

Early morning gift opening. Ben 10 was big hit for Charlie this year.

Every year the church throws a Three King Day celebration in which the Wise Men bring gifts for all the kids and throw out candy to the people and then we eat a traditional dessert served on this day: roscon.

Clark was a little scared this year.

A picture with all the kids.

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS 2009/2010

I know it is now February but like they say, it is better late than never. I didn´t want time to go by with out documenting our holiday happenings. Overall, the holidays were very good and low key. Charlie had his Christmas program in which he sang about animals including a shark in a blue lake with the Three Wise Men riding on Seahorses. Interesting? Once again we almost had a tradegy with his costume for the program. This year he did not have to dress up as a shephard but we were supposed to buy him a light blue shirt and sew garland around the neck and wrists. I understood the shirt part but I missed the garland part because I thought they were going to give him the garland at the performance. Good thing I have a good friend who´s son is in Charlie´s class who warned me a few days before so will were able to avoid another breakdown on my part. (I have been living in Spain now six years, but I still have some problems sometimes. But it made me feel better when Leo after reading the note said he would have made the same mistake).

Once again Leo and I were in charge of the Christmas dinner for our ward at Church. We decided to focus on service this year, so Leo organized some service projects in which members went to a soup kitchen to serve the food and clean. Even Charlie participated and really enjoyed the experience. On the day of the dinner at the church we collected clothes and toys to take to a charity and then after dinner we had a service auction for the members to exchange services. It was a big success.
Christmas Eve dinner with Leo´s family was at our house and just like other years we didn´t start eating until about 11 at night. In Ecuador the tradition is to eat at midnight so at least I got them to move it up an hour. We had a gift exchange with the whole family and laughed lots. It was very nice.
Christmas day was very nice too. Charlie stayed up so late on Christmas Eve that we actually had to wake him up at 11:30 am. (That is ok because it gave Santa some time to do some last minute wrapping.) Charlie´s list for Christmas was very long this year but in the end Santa brought him a costume of Iron Man, some Star Wars swords and Ben Ten action figurines. Santa brought Clark a lion to ride on but it is the small sword of Charlie´s that Clark likes most. When Charlie and Leo play fight, Clark gets right into the action and starts to fight as well, with noises and all. Overall it was a very good Christmas. We are so grateful we have the opportunity to celebrate Christ´s birth and spend time with family and friends.


Charlie with his costume for his school Christmas program.

Charlie crossing the street with his classmates to go to the auditorium for the performance.

Waving to the parents after the performance.

Clark, on Christmas Eve with his Christmas PJs.

Charlie and Clarks favorite toy from Christmas.

Clark´s Lion which is still sitting in the corner.

The boys in action.

Charlie showing off his new action gear.

The boys in action once again. It is non stop fun.

Charlie posing with one of the Three Kings (I think Baltasar) in order to drop off his wish list for Three Kings Day.

LETTER TO SANTA

Although we didn´t get Christmas cards out this year, Charlie did send out his letter to Santa, pictures included. The card read: Dear Santa, I love you. I have been a very good boy. Please bring me these gifts. Charlie.

Charlie really enjoyed cutting out the pictures of the toys he wanted and also the toys that he thought Clark and his cousin Javi would like and then he pasted them on the back of the letter. Leo helped Charlie compose the letter and wrote it out and then Charlie copied the words by himself. This year Santa had a change of address and instead of the north pole, we sent the letter to Colton, Oregon, but don´t tell Charlie that. Charlie really enjoyed Christmas this year and was so amazed by the whole Santa Claus story. Everyday he would want me to show him on a map or globe where the North Pole was and everyday he asked if we could go there.

Charlie proud of his letter to Santa

Charlie excited to mail his letter. We went to a store near our house to drop off the letter in the mailbox AKA the lion´s mouth. Even Clark was amazed by the experience as you can tell in the picture.