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

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!

The way the "deck the halls;" too bad we didn't make it back for this one all lit up at night.

More of Girona's charm.

There are tons of sweet little squares, again with amazing color and often amazing vegetation.  Just lovely!

Our girl in the same square.

We tried to get this shot several times and this is the best we managed of Aine -- cute of Mommy and Aoife, though.

Great stairs, family shot.

More great stairs ... leading up, up, up.

Yet another charming little spot.

Aine feeling less than camera cooperative, again, but both girls looking sweet.

She's beyond stinkin' cute!

There are our cuties -- on even more serious stairs!

Bye, bye for now!

We love you.

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