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

Prades

Amidst a lot of the recent chaos (see the Year End Catch-Up post below), we've also managed to have a lot of fun.  At the beginning of the month we spent a four-day-weekend in a nearby village called Prades.  We went to a "camping," as they call it here.  It was cold and wonderful and it's highly likely that we'll return in the springtime someday.

 All of these little villages always have AMAZING squares.

Antics outside of the restaurant where we had a fantastic, Catalan countryside style meal.  And by fantastic I mean unrivaled goodness.  We might have to come back soon just for lunch.  As the saying goes and as James put it, "te pones las botas aqui."

 It's cold but we know how to have fun, plus we need to walk off some of the extra calories consumed.

Again, the same great square but now it's night time and everything is all lit up.  Christmas time here is so lovely.

All of these little rural places always seem to be equipped with fab parks, our "camping" had two plus a miniature petting zoo.

4-year-old tested and approved!

After playing at the park for a while we headed off for a hike.  The girls are pretty tough these days.  This hike was about 7k and we had no complaints!

We kept checking out the rocks that made up the whole valley.  They are all like little, polished circles because the whole valley used to be under water.  It's a pretty neat geological history the region has.  Later on in this same trip we toured one of the largest caves in the world but we weren't aloud to take any pictures.  I'd highly recommend it if you ever make it our our way.

 Anyway, back to our hike (again, notice the cool geologic features in the distance -- some of the best rock climbing in the world)...

 ...like I said, the rock was just fascinating.  In this pic you can see all the holes where each little, circular rock has fallen out.

 Quick break...

 ...in a cool mini-cave.

 Big-Sis helping Little-Sis just a bit.

 I told you it was cold!  Ice dancing and slip-sliding is always fun.

More Catalan style dinner and play in our mini-cabin.  Prades is in a great wine region so Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a little wine tourism, too.  Yummy!

 This was the view from our little front porch.

 Our "camping." It just seems so funny to me to call it that but, hey, "When in Rome..."

Last little bit of ballet practice on the front porch before heading back to BCN.  Aoife has been taking dance at a fantastic little school here that she loves and Aine will start at the same school, but a different class, in January.  Music and movement are coming very naturally to both of them and you can just see how happy their little hearts are when they dance and sing!  Also, if you look very closely at this shot you will notice that Aoife has lost her first little tooth!  Oh, my!

Stay tuned.  There'll be some Christmas travels and a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Stuhan coming soon!

Happy Holidays to one and all!  We love you!

J & M & A & A

2013 - Year End Catch-Up

"Busy" is the word of the year!  As you can see, full-time teaching and mommy-ing don't make for good blogging practices.  So, here's just a snapshot of the last couple of months:

Teaching at ASB is SO different than what I've done before in a variety of ways but it's great to be back in the regular education classroom and there are lots of cool professional development and service opportunities on the horizon.  I'll keep you posted as they get closer.

The girls are still absolutely flourishing at their little school.  Someday they'll come to school with me everyday but not in the foreseeable future.  Their language skills are developing amazingly along with all the other academic and artistic odds and ends and they are just really, really happy!

James has more teaching hours this year.  He is also formally studying Catlan and is looking at Master's programs for next year.

Health wise, we've had our ups and downs.  The girls have had A LOT fewer viruses this year but in exchange we have had lice a couple of times and Aine got pin worms!  Yeee-uck!  I've been struggling with a severe kidney infection.  I was in the hospital on IV antibiotics, missed a week of work and will be following up with a urologist.  I'll keep you posted in that regard, too.

In the midst of all of that we've kept up with some pretty cool stuff and, like I always say, have continued to get more and more settled.  The pictures I'm including below, I think, reflect a lot of the peace and happiness we're finding here these days.

XOXO

And there you have it.  XOXO

Aine is 4!!!

Somehow this birthday felt like a "bigger" birthday around here.  It's not that we don't still have our ups and downs but Aine has really grown up and matured a lot in the last 6 months.  She is mostly just absolute, sheer, unfettered JOY, all of the time.  She is amazing!  I am also happy to report that we are now (generally) a household who sleeps through the entire night, every night!  That's been a long time coming ; )!

We did our usual party in the park with other families and then a small party at home.

 Birthday girl reporting for FUN!

 Both girls are swinging on their own these days -- they do still, of course, like the occasional push.

 Aoife painted Aine's face.  I think she did a pretty amazing job!  So did Aine.

 There's always a piñata!

 Train of cakes!  Do you think there'll be enough?

Happy 4!

Happy "4" to our sweet, spunky, super smart girl!  You meet life so openly and freely -- you are such a good teacher!

We love you, Gorgeous!  - Mommy, Daddy, & Aoife XOXOXO