Catalan Christmas

**Small disclaimer here: our pictures from Christmas are horrendous.  Our good camera lens broke a couple months back, which totally took the fun out of taking pictures for a while.  We were forced to use our old one point nothing megapixel camera from 1991 until we finally purchased a new lens a few weeks after Christmas before our trip to the UK.  What we have here is a pieced together mishmash of broken lens pictures, old crappy camera pictures, and iphone pictures.  Poorly documented in my opinion.

Anywho.

Christmas time in Catalunya.

After powering through Thanksgiving, determined to keep traditions alive and managing to enjoy the holiday as a family so far from home, it was hard to remain quite as inspired for Christmas. This time of year usually involves Christmas parties, visiting family, and hosting our parents for prosecco and hors d'oeuvres on Christmas Eve....and the ever enjoyable "whose family do we see when and where" conversations, last minute shopping panics, and snow to shovel.   Good or bad, there wasn't any of these things this year.   Our lives will continue to be a balancing act of accepting the loss of some traditions, people, and places, while embracing new experiences and the positive changes that come with living in a new place.  I will say, it was especially nice not to be surrounded by the consumer crazed mania.   In Barcelona, the majority of residents hold off on exchanging gifts until they celebrate Three Kings, the first week in January, and even this holiday does not carry that same panic driven spending craze, also known as "Christmas in the USA". The malls were no more crowded the week before Christmas, that I could tell, and there wasn't the advertising explosion reminding us that time is running out, and we need to buy, buy, buy. That, I must say, was nice. But we missed our family something fierce. I wished our parents and siblings could have seen the excitement on Evan's face when we talked about Santa coming...It was truly magical to live this experience through their eyes this year, and probably one of my favorite parts of Christmas this year.  But, fear not, we have video.

 

 

Our attempt at a candy sugar house this year...note the missing pieces off the roof.  Ahem...CHRIS.

New boots.  New easel.  Psyched.

Some of my favorite things about Christmas this year in Barcelona:

The Christmas Market

Europe is known for the Christmas Markets. Some countries and cities do it better than others, but most cities do have some version of a Christmas Market to visit.  The markets usually involve a tented exposition of Christmas ornaments, mangers, trees, wreathes, food, drinks, handmade crafts and gifts, etc.

 Our plan initially was to travel to Bavaria, Germany this year to spend some time in Munich and drive the Romantic Road to see the castles and markets in this region.  However, time got away from us, and alas...you can't do it all. So we postponed the trip until next year (must do), and decided to focus on what Barcelona had to offer this year. And while the Christmas Market here is not necessary the most impressive in Europe, visiting the market was still a very festive, and wonderful, way to spend a few afternoons. We browsed the decorations, picked out a new ornament to remind us of our first Christmas here in Barcelona, and also bought a star tree topper.

 

 

Simplified Decorating

 

My family will tell you I am a minimalist decorator to begin with – I have an unnatural fear of clutter, and keeping decorations around simply to be used for 3 weeks out of the year...well...not my favorite.   Also taking into consideration that we are kind of missing our basement at the moment, and the only outdoor storage space is currently housing our washer and dryer -- clearly our limited collection of Santa and nutcracker knick-knacks did not make the travel-overseas cut.  And I have to say, decorating for Christmas this year was kinda nice.   Not something I would like every year...I DO actually really enjoy the whole opening up the ornament bin and going through each one and remembering where we got them.  I'm not that much of a decorating Grinch, but I appreciated the no-muss no-fussiness of this year.  We bought a tiny little 3 foot tree (potted no less – no death, no needles, and we can keep it outside until next year!), one box of plain 'ol shiny ball ornaments, a few strings of lights for the stair banister and tree, and a poinsettia plant. Voila! Christmas. 

 

Living in Poblenou – AKA Sesame Street

"The Inner Circle" we call them.  The wine shop owner, the boutique owner and his partner, the pink haired girl who works at the photo shop, and the furniture store owner pretty much run this street.  They are behind all the festivals, organize all the holiday parades and events, and pretty much keep our street the most hoppin' place in Poblenou.  This year?  Totally broke into the inner circle.  OK...not quite.  We are now on a "stop and say hello" basis with a handful of residents and shopkeepers here, which is kind of a feat in this old school Catalan neighborhood.  Not to generalize, but it can be kind of a tough crowd for foreigners.  Regardless, after one year of living here, it was pretty cool to feel like we were part of the 'hood for this holiday.  For once, we weren't on the outskirts of the festivities taking pictures and keeping to ourselves.  People recognized us, ran over to dance with our children, and made sure to get them a balloons right away.

This year, they set up a little Christmas village, right outside our door in the plaza. Literally, about 50 feet from our front step, there sat Santa (or Papa Noel as they call him), handing out balloons and lollipops to all the children. Two weeks later, they had one of the Three Wise Men, I believe, celebrating Three Kings, doing the same thing.  There was a Three Kings parade that wound its way through the streets, down the main drag, Rambla Del Poblenou, completely made up of floats carrying children throwing candy to all the other children waiting the streets.  I need better photos of this whole celebration next year...

 



We hope everyone at home at a wonderful holiday season...we love and miss you all!