Feliz Navidad!

From the beginning of my yearlong excursion to Europe, I’d decided that rather than going home between semesters I would spend that time traveling. This meant I would be celebrating Christmas (in addition to all of the other holidays that I’ve missed so far) in a foreign country and without my family. My friend, Laurel, and I had been trying to plan traveling time together and figured out that the only time it would work out for both of us would be right around Christmas. So I promised her that we would celebrate the holiday properly some way or another and suggested we go to Madrid, Spain since I had relatives there. This decision would actually turn out to be a great one because it meant we had a family to celebrate the holiday with and were still able to travel to a new place.

After returning from Toledo on the morning of Christmas Eve, we all went to take nice siesta before getting ready for dinner. At around 8:30 that night we headed over to Amelia (Jamie’s Wife)’s sister’s house to meet up with some more of the family for dinner. While not everyone spoke English they were all very welcoming and interested to hear about where we were from and what exactly we were doing there. One of Amelia’s sisters had actually lived and worked in DC so we spoke with her a lot.

Before dinner we were served hors d'oeuvres that consisted of my new favorite thing chorizo (a spicy sausage) and other meats and cheeses. We all sat around talking and snacking for a while until dinner started at around 10pm. When we first sat down (according to our place cards!) Laurel and I both noticed that there were gifts on our plates. Apparently it’s a tradition for the host of the dinner to give gifts to all the women present at the meal. So now Laurel and I have our very own Spanish aprons!

While I realize so much of my last post dealt with food, that theme will be continuing into this post. Just as it is in America, there is lots of eating on both Christmas Eve and Day this is the case in Spain as well and their eating consists of numerous courses. First up was a chicken consume that was a special recipe of Amelia’s sister. The next course contained two GIANT plates of shrimp and prawn that still had their heads. Since I am not a big fan of these foods I did my best to eat some as slow as possible. Luckily my inability to peel them helped. The main course consisted of turkey, potatoes and caramelized onions. All of it was so delicious but there was no way I could have had seconds. Next was fruit salad, followed by a dessert of cakes and candies. Laurel and I were both made fun of for our ability to consume so many candies and sweets but I think they were actually just jealous. Oh how silly of me, there was also lots of wine flowing and a celebratory toast of champagne at the end of the dinner as well.

At this point both we were both falling asleep into our plates as it was stretching past midnight. I honestly have no idea how they were all able to stay up and be so cheery after eating and drinking so much. Clearly we were not as experienced at this as they all seemed to be.

We headed home after a bit more chatting, only to be told by Jamie that we would be doing a similar amount of eating tomorrow for lunch. I believe Laurel and I both groaned in agony and went to bed.

The next day less relatives came over so it was a more intimate Christmas. In addition to Amelia and Jamie, there was her sister (the one who worked in DC) and Amelia’s son, Marco and his wife. Since we’d all met the night before it was fun to see them again. Once everyone had arrived they started exchanging gifts. Amelia even got Laurel and I each a nice bracelet! What I think I liked best about being there for their Christmas, however was that each person only got a few gifts, probably no more than three, but each of the gifts was meaningful or something the person actually needed/wanted. Rather than giving each other a huge quantity of gifts that were unnecessary or just filler gifts, they chose to give each other gifts of quality. I think in America a lot of families tend to become consumed with the idea that giving a lot of gifts (even if they are meaningless and will just get shoved to the back of someone’s closet) make Christmas better. Yet, their concept of giving a few worthy gifts made so much more sense to me and you could see that each person was really grateful for what they had gotten. I think this idea of quality over quantity during Christmas time is something we all should consider.

After gift exchanges, dressing the dogs in Santa hats and more wine and hors d'oeuvre snacking, we moved on to Christmas lunch. First up was Amelia’s special chicken soup; it seems she hates to cook but when she does she is amazing at it. Next, Jamie was coerced into opening some of food in his Christmas gift box so we all got to eat some fois gras with special wine jelly and white wine that compliments it. It was an interesting experience for my palate… This course also had some salmon that you assembled with cream cheese and other toppings (reminiscent of the open-faced sandwiches in Denmark). For the main course we had pulled pork, mashed potatoes and baked apples. Once again it tasted amazing. For dessert there was ice cream and more candies which Laurel and I actively consumed. By the end of the meal we were all joking and getting along very well. It was an extremely fun time and everyone was really welcoming to the two random American girls.

Once we were finished stuffing ourselves, I had to lie down due to the realization that I had clearly eaten more than acceptable. Eventually Laurel and I went for a walk to try and ease our stomachs and to listen to some Christmas music.

While it wasn’t the same sort of way that I would celebrate Christmas at home, my surrogate Spanish family was a lot of fun and very generous. Spending time with them (and eating until I burst) made being away from home easier and I was glad that I had chosen to spend the holiday in a country I had never been to before.

After a few more days in Spain and getting in last minute sites, Laurel and I parted ways. She returned to the States and I headed to London, where for once I would actually speak the native language. In my next post I’ll discuss this adventure.

As a side note, I watched President Obama’s inauguration this evening and it was slightly bittersweet. As excited as I am for him to be our new President, I can’t help but feel that being abroad this year has made me miss out on some rather historic events that in a typical year at AU (and in DC) I would have been present for. While I don’t regret being abroad, I think it would have been amazing to be in DC during the election as well as the inauguration and been able to claim that I was amidst those present during these times. Although I suppose explaining that I was studying abroad and avidly watching BBC’s live coverage will just have to do.

Until next time….