It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a BCN Christmas

We spent some time this past weekend gathering some Christmas supplies and beginning to decorate our flat.  It was quite a success!

 Heading out for the day.


First, we spent some time just walking around and hanging out -- because, as you can see, the weather is still absolutely gorgeous!

 Aoife, rocking out to one of her new favorite songs, No Woman, No Cry.  She's actually sitting here singing right now as I "blog." She likes the version this street band plays a bit better than the live Marley version -- they make it thump a little more ; ).

Aine rockin'just a little bit : ).

And here's the group at it in the Barceloneta (our old barrio -- I think Aoife would like to go and dance as they play every weekend!)! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6_FZrQKpSU&feature=related

I think you can see why she likes it : ).

 

 Just a short walk away from the street musicians, castanyes -- yum!

 Have you had your "chestnuts roasted on an open fire" this year?  We have, and we liked them a lot!

 An aisle at the downtown Christmas market.

 Another aisle, you can see the lights above, which will be turned on soon along with lights in every other part of the city!

 The Tiós de Nadal down from the mountains for the holidays.

 Happy to have brought our "Caga Tió" home.

 Working on the tree.

 Christmas decorating provisions.

 Almost there ... and while the lighting on this shot is awful, wow that girl is lovely!

 Silly girls, loving their tree.

 Do you think we love our "Caga Tió"?

His first meal in his new home, he ate the whole thing!!!

More about that, later!

Happy Holidays!

XXXOOO

New home, new neighborhood

 This is our building and we're the top set of windows you can see.

 View down the street.

This is the lobby of our building.

Yes, there are three escalators there and they are not the only ones in the neighborhood.  The last time we lived in BCN we were on the beach, this time we live up on the mountain in the zona alta. The views are nice, and we have this just above us with lots of protected reserve areas around and behind to hike in:

 

And this is the view of the rest of the city from the park by our house that we posted previously:

Maggie put some photos up on Facebook of our flat before we moved in, and I'm afraid we don't have new ones yet--it's not really decorated yet anyway.  But, for those that haven't seen them yet here is our new place:

At three bedrooms and two bathrooms it is bigger than we thought were going to be able to get here.  We're settling in nicely and have access to everything we need: two different trains within walking distance, three grocery stores, multiple bakeries, a public gym right down the street, and we can walk to the girls' school (downhill in the mornings, we take the bus back up in the afternoon and it lets us off at the end of the street).

As always, more pictures to come.

Aine = 2 Years Old!

A few quick words of thanks to those who came to celebrate with us this year.  It was so nice to have people around us who we love and care about to share this special time.  Thank you for coming (Lindsey Wood and Francesc Aunion, Johnny and BarbaraAnn Lavery, and Jenny Jones, Dave and Wren)! 

This ranks as one of our very favorite pictures right now!  Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl, we all love you so much!

 My cake is YUMMY! 

 Big Sissy likes it too!

 Presents wrapped in homemade wrapping paper - fun!

Our sweet, best-friends-forever!

Happy Birthday Aine Maeve -- and "half-birthday"" Aoife Roisin -- we're so glad to have both of you and that you have each other.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Parc Turo del Putget

There's a fantastic park just up the hill from our flat, and by up the hill, I mean it takes us only about 7 minutes to walk there but it's all up a steep hill.  There's a bunch of "green space," fantastic trees, playgrounds and lovely views.

Best. swing. ever.  ; ).

 See-saw ... see-saw ... bounce, bounce, bounce.

 Rock, rock, rock!

 The view (well, one of them).

The above was a a trip to the park when we were still trying to decide for sure where we were going to live.  The visit helped to seal the deal, as it were.  Below, is a recent visit (last weekend) to the same park for an impromptu picnic -- yum, fun!

 This is yummy and we're cute!

 She was feeling particularly playful and photogenic ; ).

 Oooh, what does Daddy have for us now?!?! -- panellets!

 We're thirsty! -- one of the many fantastic, public fountains that can be found in the city.

Feeling playful, loving the leaves and the open spaces!  Dancing, dancing, dancing : )!