Bon Any -- 2014!!!

Happy New Year -- 2014!

Tomorrow marks my return to work -- it feels a little bit surreal after all this time off!  The kids and James don't go back until Wednesday.  It's King's Day here and it just wouldn't be right to send so many kiddies back to school the day after they get all the presents they've been so patiently waiting for and after they've spent the entire day partying it up with family ... Would it?  So, 3/4 or our clan get an extra day to play and relax along with our Catalan compatriots.  The truth is it's been a great break but I think we're all ready to get back in to our normal routines.

Over break we hit the town with Grandma and Grandpa:

 Barcelona Christmas lights never disappoint!

 We love this Plaza!

 The weather was totally good enough to beach-it!

The 3-Kings made a pre-Epiphany appearance.

We did the Christmas thing:

 Ready to rock'n'roll for Christmas morn'!

 Tio getting his annual beating -- it's all in good fun.  Seriously!

 Happy princess(es) on Christmas morning.

Pin y Pon heaven ... or ... ?

We headed out to the Costa Brava to enjoy yummy food, wine, a bit of agriculture and history:

Grandma worked hard to convince Aoife that these baby cows could do no harm.

Aoife was surprisingly more convinced that the pigs were the gentler species ... maybe it had something to do with the fence?

 Cadaques is always lovely!  Grandma and Granpa looking great!

 Silliness ...

 ... and seriousness ...

... and just plain cuteness!

We partied it up on New Year's Eve .. the way you do when you when you've got small children:

We celebrated with the Corominas clan -- the lovely family who have adopted us and who I've blogged about before.  My extra kiddo in this picture is their older daughter, Maria.

We had a cookie making party (sugar cookies instead of gingerbread this year):

Our "party" got off to a slow start as our guests didn't show up until over an hour late.  Gotta love living on Spanish time.  ... ?

Supplies - check!  Cookie Makers -- ??? Ummmm, "Calling all cookie makers?"

Oh, there they are.  Well, some of them at least.  James is hard at work, you can tell by the look on his face.  You've seen Jana and Magali before, too, they're the children of the other family who have really taken us on and made life here a whole heck of a lot more wonderful.

 Aoife and Aine did a pretty darn good job decorating their Papa Noel cookies! 

 Time to eat!  And play more princess, or course.

Maria showed up too and had a ball decorating her cookies.  In the end, she decorated the most of everyone, Tinkerbell get-up and all!

And last night we kicked-off King's in style:

 Who's ready for Tortell de Reis?!?

 Grandma joined us via Skype.

 I think this is the best King's Cake we've had yet.  Leave it to the 125+ year-old bakery to have that sorted.

 Aine found the King!  Yay!

Isn't he handsome?

And then today has been pretty low key, which suits us well.  There were minimal presents an fan-fare for King's this year.  Which is the right fit for us.  We're starting to get this mixing-of-traditions thing in balance.

Yes, a bit of balance...

...and on that note, here's to a wonderful 2014 to all of us!

Chin-chin.

XOXO