January? Already?

We´ve arrived on the other side of the holiday season around here.  With our mish-mash of Anglo-American-European-embracing-of-Spanish-and-Catalan-Culture it's quite a long holiday season.

Things kick-off with Thanksgiving and then there's a bit of a reprieve before Christmas with Tió, New Year´s -- an even bigger deal here than other places, perhaps because it's the first big holiday of the season celebrated by everyone -- and then finally, the capstone, Kings Day.  Last year we were trying to navigate everything being new.  Everything, not just some of the holidays and traditions, there was a sense of adventure, exhilaration, and growth mixed with all the exhaustion. This year the question is how to make it all work for us.  Put bluntly, the holiday season was a little long and overdone for us this year.  On the upside, we enjoyed many celebrations with new friends and old -- many people we love -- and I think we may have figured out how to work out a fit in the future.

Thanksgiving -- this one's important to us and we'll make it work every year:

 The girls with sweet friend Wren and one of their new favorite people in the world, "Auntie Clare!"

Not only did we make The Bird work but it was, I think, the best we´ve ever done.  Quite a pleasant surprise given the fact that we thought we might´nt manage at all.

 Classics and a bunch of vegan options.

Good food, wine, and friends.

Some shots I had to add:

 Tree decorating antics!  Ceee-ute!

She insisted on this picture.  We were celebrating after the kids Sant Nicolau pageant at school.

I'll add some odds and ends about our Scottish Christmas in my next post.  Goodness knows that was lovely!

Xx