Los Stuhan

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

It's Christmas -- Round 1!

The Christmas Season around here has been absolutely magical. We've learned so much about the traditions in our new home and we've had so much fun doing so. All this celebrating has also helped to solidify actual feelings of "home" in this new place and created lots of wonderful memories. The merriment and memory making has also reinforced feelings that we've had for a while; those about moving here, about continuing to head in a direction of reduced consumption, about valuing time together over things, and making that a part of an active lifestyle and role-modeling for our children. All of this has its challenges, and we aren't as good at it yet as we'd like to be, but like I said, the wonder of the Season certainly helped.

So, here was our tree on Christmas morning (that includes gifts from Aunt T and Uncle R). It was a much more humble Christmas than our children had experienced in the past and certainly more so than either mine our James's had been as children. As we sat drinking our wine, listening to music, and talking after "Santa's visit" we were actually having a really hard time, emotionally, with our decision to be leaner and meaner with Christmas. But, we knew that "los Reyes Magos," had presents to deliver yet and that Grandma had yet to arrive with gifts so we didn't get into any of the gifts we'd reserved for "Kings Day" to make the Christmas haul bigger.

Two little girls still looking pretty happy : ).

I think Daddy's Special French Toast is likely to become a Christmas tradition.

Playing Jenga, a BIG hit for the day and since.

After breakfast and some playtime we headed out for the day because it was gorgeous out!

Out for a walk on the port and a bite to eat (just restaurants open today -- lucky us). Dang, you just can't beat Barcelona weather this year! Wow!

After lunch we hit up one of our favorite urban parks in Mommy and Daddy's old neighborhood.

Best swing ever!

Did we mention we like the swing?

Still having fun.

Time for some slip slidin'.

Waaaaaa ----

----- hoooooo!

Aine figured out this contraption right away -- Aoife joined in on the fun. I really just can't believe how much toddlers can spin. It makes me dizzy thinking about it.

So, that was "Christmas proper." However, there's plenty more celebration to catch up on. Stick around.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Besos,

Los Stuhan

Saturday, December 24, 2011

BCN Christmas Eve - 2011

It's nearly Christmas and the fun and festivities have already begun around here.

I had to share this! Aoife is in the "peixos"[fish] class at school and she painted this lovely, rainbow fish for her teacher for Christmas. I suppose I'm biased, but I think she's pretty talented.

Now, on to Christmas Eve. This was our delicious dinner. We call it: Barcelona Bangers and Mash -- arugula, sweet potatoes, butifarra sausage, and lots of caramelized onions. Yum!

And now it's time for Caga Tió, the local Catalan tradition. He's a Christmas log that comes down from the mountains to pass the cold winter holidays with your family. After being fed diligently every day he fattens up and then "poops" sweets for the children. He needs a little encouragement with a stick to get started ...

...and Aoife lands the first whack!

She's really getting into this.

Aine's getting in on the fun ...

... but she's still a little skeptical about this whole "pooping sweets" stuff.

Can't be too skeptical with a yummy turron in hand.

Daddy checking for more "poop."

Ooooh, there is more.

Aine seems to be happy about her loot.

Aoife too, thanks Tió.

And of course, we ended the evening with a letter for Santa, cookies, and a carrot for the reindeer.

We're pretty excited about Santa's visit ... and on that note, Mommy and Daddy have a few more presents to wrap.

Bon Nadal

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Craftiness

If you follow the blog you know that we Stuhan girls love our art projects. This past month they've taken the form of making ornaments, partly because it's just the right time of year and partly due to necessity. We couldn't bring all that kind of stuff with us so we're kinda building our tree from scratch. Thank goodness we have such great little helpers.

The girls hard at working making snowflake ornaments. The idea was to combine shaving cream and glue to make "puffy"ornaments. It's rumored that it works -- maybe you just need Barbasol and Elmer's, neither of which I have ever seen here.

Still, such a great tactile activity! I'd do it again just for that!

How things were shaping up.

Working on Christmas wreathes.

Yes, that is our laundry drying on our dining chairs. We had a pretty serious rainy spell there!

You'll also see some snowmen below. Those are simply made out of glue. Just shape the glue, let it dry, and decorate. That one the girls completed, with the colors and styling of their choice, with Daddy.

And now, for the finished products, as they hang ...

Aoife's wreath!

Aine's snowman.

Aoife's snowman.

Aoife's snowflake (notice, little to no "puff").

Aine's wreath!


Aine's snowflake -- a little more "puff."

Girona "Puente"

So, for our most recent "puente" -- three day weekend -- we decided to bite the bullet, load up the kids, and make our first overnight trip since we arrived in Barcelona. We had a great time and have pretty hardy little travelers, as we find time and again. I think they hold up better than we do these days : ).

We chose Girona, a little city just about a 1.5 hour train ride NW of us, because it's close, easy to get to, and we loved visiting there and roaming the streets when we lived here before.

Waiting for our train and loving every minute (croissant as a morning snack probably had something to do with it).

I'm working on fitting in more, wardrobe wise, I was pretty successful this day.

There are a bunch of little locks with names and dates on them all along the same bridge I'm standing on above. I imagine people are "locking their love," it's really sweet.

Didn't have a lock so we settled for a kiss.

The fun of small Spanish towns. I love so much about this picture. The rich color, the fact that a new building is going to be inserted between these two older buildings, the "graffiti"/mural on the wall below, how the scaffolding looks like it might actually be balancing those two buildings weight against each other so they don't actually fall down (okay, so maybe that's what they are actually doing), all the windows and doors ...

I can't say how long this little shop has been here and open but well over a century and I imagine much of the wood and paneling are original. Charming!