Mistletoe and wine ....

There were no Christmas carols, there were no Christmas crackers, there was no mistletoe, there was no Santa Claus, but my Christmas was a fantastic success!



I have always enjoyed Christmas, and my family have always made it a special family time for me. The last few years though have not been the traditional family Christmas that I was accustomed to. I spent one Christmas in a shared flat in Sydney with a bunch of other backpackers cooking a bbq instead of a roast chicken, I spent another Christmas on a house boat in Malawi dresses up in a bad shiny pink 80’s style prom dress. My Christmas’s in Spain have been good, but have not felt very Christmassy as neither the country nor Xavi celebrate Christmas very much. I felt as though I had lost those Christmas feeling and experiences that we had in South Africa and in England before I left. I thought that was it!



Yaincoa, my dad aka grandpa and Emmeline

Then I got pregnant and moved into my new flat. I suddenly had images of where I would place my Christmas tree, where I would put the tinsel, how many people could fit around my brand new giant dining room table. It was going to be my daughters first Christmas and even though we may live in a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas that much, half her family traditionally celebrate Christmas, therefore so would she. In May I told xavi that we would be hosting Christmas at our house! If our parents would come, great. If not, then it would just be us, but this year it would be my traditional fun Christmas! I told my parents, and they readily agreed to have Christmas day at ours. We invited Xavi’s parents and at first they couldn’t make it, but about a week before Christmas, they said they would be able to be here. We had Yaincoa with us so it was going to be a full house! I put up the tree, decorated it, bought more decorations for the tree, decorated the flat and put up lights! Even Xavi seemed to be more into the season and helped decorate the whole place with me. I was thrilled!



My mom, aka Granny



I started to get a little scared! Christmas lunch for 7 people, I was to cook Christmas lunch for 7, how was I going to do it? I decided it would be easy – chuck everything in the oven together, leave it for a few hours, and voila, scrumptious lunch! Oh, and as was tradition, there would of course be the obligatory snacks and drinks on the 24^th as well, and since we had Emmeline, it made sense to have those at ours as well. So I had to think about nibble snacks to make for Christmas Eve, and lunch on Christmas day. Oh, and pudding of course!



I started to do the planning on the 22^nd, I went to buy the food on the 23^rd and on the 24^th I was in the kitchen baking nice homemade chocolate cupcakes with butter cream icing. Finished making the snacks about 20 minutes before my parents arrived with drinks, chicken wings, jamon (dried Spanish ham) and more. We had a fantastic time with both Emmeline and Yaincoa getting heaps of playtime with the grandparents. I also had a chance to consult with mom about everything to do with making Christmas lunch to whether my oven was big enough for everything to how many potatoes I should make! What a huge help! Passed out on Christmas Eve excited about the next day and trying very hard to not peep under the tree and see which presents were mine, I was an adult after all . . . . Nah, it was simply because xavi was in the lounge and so I didn’t get a moment to sneak a peep alone!



The spanish family gandpa Dalmau, granny Conchi, daddy Xavi



Christmas morning and we woke up late! Yaincoa was allowed to open one of his ‘big’ presents to keep him going until all the grandparents arrived. I handed Emmeline over to Xavi, put my apron on and locked myself away in the kitchen. I commented how patient yaincoa seemed to be about waiting to open the rest of his presents, and I was informed by an exasperated looking xavi that no, he was not being patient at all and that practically every time he opened his mouth it was to ask for presents! Ha ha ha ha!

Mom and dad arrived just in time to help yaincoa fix his slightly broken new toy gun, for mom to help calm my nerves about how the lunch was going and to help me with the rest of the preparations, I don’t know what I would have done without her help! A short while later Xavi’s parents arrived and the house was in full swing! The situation was a little difficult as my parents don’t speak much Spanish, and Xavi’s parents don’t speak any English, which means communication between them is limited! But we manage and a little translation here and there by me and xavi helps things along. It is amazing how much people can say and understand even when they don’t speak the same language.

"Mommy, please stop dressing me up in silly things!"

The noise levels in the house had increased by about a million – seven people in the same space, one of those a loud 8 year old little boy, a few of those being Spanish (Spanish people do not speak quietly), a baby who has learnt how to make high pitched noises and everyone else just trying to be heard – and we hadn’t even started to open the presents. Oh dear, this is getting a little crazy. Then the present opening started. Yaincoa became even more boisterous and decided that it was his job to open to only his presents, but also those of his little sister. If I can be honest, this kind of annoyed me as I really wanted to have my little girl on my lap and open presents with her, but it wasn’t to be. Well I suppose that she is only 5 months old, so she doesn’t really understand it all does she?



Presents were opened and everyone was happy!

Homemade trifle

Homemade cupcakes

Out came lunch – Success!! Everybody loved the food and almost everybody had seconds, Yaay me and Yaay mom! We did it. Mom had made homemade trifle, so out came the trifle and the cupcakes – a beautiful homemade spread that just screamed EAT ME! And eat them I did, diet went straight out the window and double portions of trifle were served!

With everybody’s bellies full, everyone retired to the lounge. Yaincoa got a Scalextric for Christmas, so the track was made and away went the boys racing around, making bridges and ramps and all sorts of boyish things whilst the ladies sat back and played pass the baby!



It was the first Christmas that we hosted and it was a great success. It felt like a real Christmas, the ones I remember having with my family a few years ago and the kind that I want my little girl to be raised with and remember, the kind where the important thing is not the presents or the number of presents received, it is not about who got the biggest shiniest gift, it is about family, it is about being together, it is about laughter and fun, and it is all about the pudding!!