Christmas time, Mistletoe and wine, fa la la, la la la la la la.....
Ok, so I don’t know the words, and I cannot really drink wine (breastfeeding), I don’t own any mistletoe and I don’t own a Christmas carol CD (must be sure to download something very soon), but I have finally put up my Christmas tree!! Yaay me!
I have not been feeling very Christmas, but that is not just this year! It has been a while now. Why? I don’t know, perhaps because I now live in a country where Christmas is not the big celebration at this time of year, the big celebration would be The Three Kings on the 6th January.
(Background Info: In Spain father Christmas is not the star of the show, it is the Three Kings. They were the three wise men who came and gave gifts; therefore, the time to give gifts over here is traditionally the 6th January. The 6th January will see 3 giant kings arrive by boat and then there is a parade all around the city where they throw sweets at the children. That is the day children get there gifts. Last year Yaincoa received an electric toothbrush and a mobile phone from his mother on this date. He was 7. Not normal. However with more and more external influence in the media etc, Father Christmas is beginning to carve out a little niche for himself over here. Great for the kids, most will now get presents at Christmas and the 3 kings if the parents choose to celebrate both. )
Since our family is a mixed bag of delights, we shall celebrate both. Christmas time is my traditional celebration and the three kings is Xavi’s traditional celebration. Our children will therefore get both!
Where was I? Ok so back to why I don't feel Christmassy? I think that it is because whilst there are Christmas lights in the street, it is nowhere near Oxford Street standards! Each ‘barrio’ (district) of Barcelona pays for their own lights and therefore is representative of that barrio. For example, Barceloneta is a fishing area, so there Christmas lights have fish in them. No, not very Christmas like, but yes very representative of that barrio and unique. So, not many Christmassy lights, what else? Well I have not heard one single Christmas carol! Not on the radio, not on the TV, not in the supermarket, nowhere. The only place I heard a Christmas carol was on a report for the news talking about how the remix version of Jingle Bells was making it big over in Ibiza ...Ok then! I have also noticed a distinct lack of Christmas decorations in flat windows, or in shops, I have also not seen a Santa Claus yet, anywhere. The only real sign so far that Christmas in near in the absolute bombardment of adverts for children’s toys (enough already, we are trying to not raise spoilt brats) and adverts for perfumes (I am seriously over images of semi naked, sexy, wet gorgeous people. Honestly, I am). I feel a little bit like Christmas imposter. But ho hum, away I go anyway, if I don’t feel Christmassy, then perhaps surrounding myself with the evidence that it is in fact that time of year again will push me into the mood! Truth be told, I want to feel all Christmassy as this is Emmeline’s first and I am all excited about that!
My Christmas decoration mission started off well. We went down to the house last week for a one day visit quite simply to get some of our winter clothing and most importantly, to get my Christmas decorations. Xavi’s dad very kindly bought us back in the car saving us a rather long train journey with a large chequered plastic bag with a Christmas tree sticking out of it! I wanted to put the tree up on Sunday night while Yaincoa was with us, but as you may know, the Wicked Witch decided to come and pick up her son early and so that plan went down the drain. So on Monday I started to decorate the house. First thing, decorations all around the lounge and a few decorations in the hallway. It occurred to me that I have never decorated more than this part of the flat, mostly I just decorate the lounge and that is it! Does anyone actually put decorations in their whole house? You could actually close the door to my lounge and feel like everything was normal, open the door and walk into Christmas! I could buy more decorations to do the rest of the flat, but it just wouldn’t feel right. Next up, the tree. My tree is a few years old now, the decorations are fairly crap and the tinsel appears to have been cut up (no doubt by a little boy who ‘helped’ me decorate last year; I thought that there appeared to be more tinsel than normal). You see the problem is that by the end of the year my funds are normal dried up, and presents come before decorations, hence the really awful Christmas tree decorations!
So anyway, up went the tree; on went the lights, tinsel and decorations. On went the lights and I took a step back to admire the tree. It was very pretty although slightly anorexic in the decorations department. However, I told myself that if I could find a few extra coins somewhere, I would buy myself a few more decorations. The tree stood in her corner all night long, lights twinkling away, decorations dancing amongst the tinsel. Ah Christmas . . .
The following day I had scraped together quite a few coins that enabled me to go out and buy more tinsel, more decorations for the lounge, and more decorations for the tree. YAAY! I came home and rearranged everything with my nice new decorations and tinsel, it was beautiful and then I went to put the lights on again. I plugged in the switch and NOTHING. No lights, not a single one, nothing. I could not believe it, all that work for the lights to fizz out! I was slightly devastated. I sat in a heap on the couch and slowly deflated.
Xavi, my darling hero, went out and bought me new lights the next day and so I spent the following afternoon removing ALL the decorations, ALL the tinsel and the dud lights. Half way through the process of removing these dud lights, they started to work again. SERIOUSLY? Bastards. I threw them into a corner totally disgusted them and their unwillingness to work when I wanted them to and I arranged the new lights, the tinsel and the decorations . . . again. Switched on the lights, and the tree was gorgeous, much better than before I am pleased to say. Emmeline was fascinated by the lights for about 3 seconds and then hastily resumed to eating her hands, oh well, maybe next year will mean more to her.
As for the dud lights? Xavi got them working and they are now up on the wall twinkling away in all the Christmas glory . . .
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