When the lights go on

Something magical happened last weekend in Barcelona. Christmas lights went up all around the city a few weeks ago and just last Friday, they were finally turned on! It seems the holiday season is already upon us and I, for one, am so excited. It's so enchanting to walk underneath the lights and see twinkling and a bit of sparkle everywhere you turn. I'm sure it can charm even the biggest curmudgeon.

A good friend of ours took these lovely pictures of the lights around town and kindly permitted me to share them with you guys here. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers. I hope your hearts and bellies are full. 

Preparing for the summer exodus

When the little one was born in July two years ago, I was so grateful that the Professor had the month of August off so that he could stay home with the baby and I. I was even more grateful when I found out that my in-laws would be coming to visit for the entire summer. But when August rolled around, we realized the big downside to having a summer baby in Barcelona. Basically, the city shuts down for an entire month (and sometimes the first two weeks of September) as everyone takes their summer vacations all at the same time. So if you're here in August, you're stuck in the hot and humid city with a bunch of tourists and many of your favorite shops and restaurants and cafes are closed for a few weeks. (Note: this doesn't apply to all businesses of course, just the small ones like bakeries, butchers, clothing boutiques, small bookstores, and the like). 

As if that weren't inconvenient enough, schools are also closed from mid-July to mid-September so you can imagine how parents feel about summer vacation. There are of course day camps you can put your kids in but most of those end on July 31st. After that point, you're on your own. The Professor and I were still working through July so for a few weeks, it was a revolving door of childcare around here as the Professor would stay home while I worked and I would stay home while he worked.  Because there's no school, Spanish parents don't have much of a choice except to take the month off work and take a vacation with their families. After two years here, I still kind of marvel at this. For Americans, the idea of such a long vacation is a little overwhelming. You're almost thinking, but what will we do? Just go to the beach every single day? To be totally honest, the Professor and I were a little panicky as summer approached imagining Roman cooped up in the house watching TV all day and playing all by himself (he has no family here and all his friends are on vacation). But we're doing our best to make sure that he has an enjoyable summer. During the day, we try to keep him busy with trips to the park, pool, library, mall and other places around town. Sometimes we just hop on the metro or a local bus and get off at any stop we want just to indulge Roman's love of all modes of transportation. Hopefully he'll remember this summer as a time where he learned how to color on the sidewalk, chase bubbles, squash water balloons and build sandcastles.

We are going to be taking a mini-vacation to France this week (only five days. But still!) and then we'll get back to exploring our adopted city with our little summer boy.  

Stay tuned!

Scenes from our weekend

As you may know, this past Sunday was Mother's Day in the U.S. (a belated Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!), but you may not know that the week before was Mother's Day here in Spain. We skipped celebrating the Spanish Mother's Day mostly for mundane reasons: the Professor had a basketball game and the little one's nap ran too long. But we actually discovered that Spanish Mother's Day is not that big a deal here anyway. When I asked most of my Spanish friends what they planned to do last weekend on their special day, most of them gave a shrug and said probably nothing. Now, I don't expect a lot on this day either but it's nice to have a little bit of acknowledgement and maybe a nice little surprise. In my case, the surprise was flowers, a framed photo of me and my baby and a finger painting by the little one. What more could I want?

Here are some scenes from our weekend:

For lunch on Sunday, we headed out to Kibuka, a Japanese restaurant in Gracia. The Professor and I are suckers for sushi but I'm also the kind of person who can never resist a steaming bowl of soup. This magical udon dish definitely hit the spot. 

On Saturday, we happened upon a street fair a few blocks away and along with the usual street foods (olives, cheese, beer, an assortment of hams), many Spanish street fairs have some fried fish or seafood. This plate of cuttlefish (called sepia in Spanish) was so tender and tasty not at all like the greasy, rubbery stuff you sometimes get in restaurants.

I've written before about the Catalan tradition of forming human pyramids, called castellers. We've seen them often enough now that it's not that big a deal anymore but I remember the first time we saw one, we were a bit taken aback. It's impressive, sure. But it's also a bit terrifying especially as the highest tiers normally have small children. Sometimes the whole thing starts swaying slightly and you can see the bottom tiers wobbling a bit and it seems like everyone in the crowd is holding their breath. But then the little girl gets to the top, everyone cheers and then she quickly scrambles down. 

At the street fair, we found this vintage foosball table that had players dressed in FC Barcelona kits playing against their longtime rivals, Real Madrid. The Professor would love to own this table especially since Barcelona's had a disappointing season so far and at least in foosball you could get the players to do what you want. 

Finally, a shot of me and my little monkey clowning around. You know what's so sweet? Roman's just learning now how to kiss and how to hug. If you asked him for a kiss before, he would just kind of bring his cheek to your mouth so you could kiss him. But now he purses his lips together and makes a smacking sound on your face which is close enough. And when you ask him for a hug, he'll wrap his arms around you and lay his head inside the crook of your neck.It's the most heart melting thing in the world. I guess he figured out how to do it just in time for Mother's Day. :) 

So that's what we've been up to lately. What about you guys?

P.S. Here's what we did last weekend in case you missed it. 

Scenes from Milan and Rome

Firstly, happy new year to all! I hope 2014 brings great things for you all. One of my resolutions for this year is to blog a bit more consistently. I know that my blog is not frequented by many people but for me anyway, that's not really the point behind blogging. It gives me happiness to gather my thoughts, write them down, and record our everyday life however little it may be. So towards that end, I thought I'd share with you guys some photos and stories from our recent trip to Italy. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we were not able to go to Miami for Christmas this year owing to some scheduling conflicts with the Professor's job so we decided to stay in Europe and do a little sight seeing. We chose to visit Milan first because the Professor has some cousins living there who could show us around and then we took the high speed train to Rome where we spent four delightful days seeing friends, eating well, and taking in some art and history.

Here are some scenes from our vacation:

The Professor's cousins warned us before we came that Milan is not one of Italy´s prettiest cities nor is it one of the more interesting ones. Tourism wise, there is very little to do. But if you do go to Milan, I can't recommend the Milan Cathedral, also known as El duomo, highly enough. It was one of the most beautiful things we'd ever seen and we didn't even go inside! The tour is mostly restricted to the roof where you can wander around admiring the architecture and taking in the view of the city.

It was especially beautiful at sunset which was when we went.

The Professor and I took a moment to try to instill some appreciation for art and architecture into our little one but he just wasn't that impressed. Not a fan of the Gothic style perhaps. 

After we finished the tour of El duomo,we headed over to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for some after-Christmas shopping which is basically the  main thing there is to do in Milan. Most of the stores here are pretty pricey (think Prada and Louis Vuitton) so mostly we watched other people shop which is not as fun. But you can't beat this place for ambiance especially during Christmas time when everything's decorated with twinkling lights. 

The morning we left for Milan we had to take the little one to the E.R. He had been running a fever, not eating, and basically was feeling awful. It turned out he had an ear infection, thrush and a respiratory infection. He was so miserable, we actually considered canceling our trip. But we went anyway and brought around five different medications for him. Fortunately, he was 100 times better after just a few days and he loved meeting his cousins in Milan and playing with his cousin Mattia's toys. 

Despite the fact that he got over his illnesses pretty fast, we kept him extremely bundled up the whole time we were in Italy just in case. 

There are few things the Professor loves as much as me. But certainly on that list is anything with cheese that has been deep fried. Imagine his delight when he discovered the popular Italian street food, panzerotti, which is pizza dough stuffed with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce and then deep fried. Yum!

Moving on to our trip to Rome. The whole time we were in Italy it was rainy and chilly. It was a bit of a downer at times but Rome is just one of those cities that is so pretty, it looks quite charming wet. Looking at this picture, wouldn't you agree?

On our first day exploring the city we got lost trying to find Piazza Navona and after an hour or so of walking around we were dying of hunger. It was an odd time of day to eat since it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so most restaurants we passed were closed. Finally, we spotted this paninoteca (sandwich shop) and decided to give it a try. It turned out to be amazing. I had the simplest sandwich in the world: prosciutto and artichokes on artisan bread. You wouldn't think that that would be such an incredible pairing, but it SO was. And the place was just so charming as well. It's 100 percent a family run business. The father makes the sandwiches, his ten year old daughter waits on the customers and his eight year old son rings you up. If you find yourself ever on Via Coronari, get a sandwich and a beer from this place. You'll thank me. :) 

When we finally did find Piazza Navona after our amazing lunch, we were too full for dessert really but we couldn't resist trying these doughnut things since every street vendor there was selling them. They are enormous, flat, pastries that are served topped with Nutella. I can't remember what they're called though. Does anyone know? 

This picture just makes me laugh. It's a balloon that some child accidentally let go of and off the horse went. It amuses me to think of this horse floating around Rome, enjoying the sights and perhaps meeting up with an escaped Sponge Bob balloon. Oh the adventures he will have!

At this time of year, Piazza Navona hosts a large Christmas market where you can find handmade ornaments, toys, sweets, antiques and a bunch of other things for sale. Almost every booth sold this ornament which is a character named La Befana. In Italy, she is the Christmas witch who comes around on the Eve of Epiphany to give gifts to the little ones. 

The beautiful Trevi fountain. One of the great things about Rome is that you don't really need a guidebook. If you want to know what sights to see, you will doubtless be able to discover them for yourself if you just keep an eye out for hundreds of people gathered close together all with their smart phones and DSLR cameras out. We didn't want to push forward to get a picture but, after all, when in Rome...

A Christmas rainbow near the Trevi fountain. It felt almost magical to walk underneath it. If only there'd been a pot of gold at the end of it.

On our second day in Rome, we braved the rain and cold and toured the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The morning of our tour, we met up with one of my great friends at Oppio Caffè which is remarkable for one primary reason: the amazing view of the Colosseum directly in front of it. The inside of the Colosseum is impressive obviously, but I still regret that while we were sitting on the terrace of Oppio having our coffees and burgers and chatting away we didn't think to snap a picture of the outside of the Colosseum which is essentially the postcard image of Rome that everyone likes to see. Ah well. Next time. 

The Roman Forum, in my opinion, is even more interesting than the Colosseum because it was a meeting place for regular people going about their daily lives.  Imagining people scurrying back and forth from government buildings tending to urgent business resonated with me more than the image of gladiators and slaves slaughtering each other at the Colosseum. Walking around the Forum made me feel more aware of my surroundings and of how quickly time passes if that makes any sense. 

Another shot of the ruins. The tour guide told us that this area where the Forum was built used to be just a bunch of marshland and the Romans had to build giant sewers to drain the water from here. The site is so low that it feels a bit like  you're standing in a shallow hole, under the rest of the city. P.S. Big tip for anyone visiting the Forum or the Colosseum with a baby or a toddler: don't bring the stroller. It will be impossible to navigate all the stairs and the huge cracks in the pavement. Better to wear your little one in a baby carrier.

Finally, I leave you with a shot of the little one clowning around on the Metro. We rode the metro every single day and every day that we rode we realized how spoiled we have become by the metro in Barcelona. In comparison with the Barcelona Metro, the Roman Metro is old, dirty, and not well connected to many parts of the city. Also the ticket machines are temperamental, sometimes accepting only coins, many times out of order. A tip to those of you visiting Rome in the future, if you plan on taking the Metro, buy your tickets in advance when the station is not crowded and you are not in a hurry, and remember that newspaper vendors also sell metro tickets and often there is no line. We didn't learn this until our last day. 

So that was our little Christmas/New Year's Eve getaway. What did you guys do over the break? Did you have a nice holiday?

A Catalan Christmas

This Christmas we're not going home to Miami (sniff, sniff) and even though we're a bit sad about that, we're going to make the most of staying in Barcelona by having a semi-Catalan Christmas this year. So, what exactly is a Catalan Christmas you may be wondering? Well, it's not really a Santa Claus, Rudolph and Jingle Bells kind of thing. There are some similarities with a traditional American Christmas. Some families put up a tree and tell their kids that Papa Noel is coming to give them treats and gifts on the 25th. But most Catalan families, especially those with small children, prepare for Christmas by putting out a smiling little log with a red hat on his head called a Caga Tio. The name literally means Pooping Uncle and that's a pretty accurate description of what he is. You get a little Caga Tio for your home, cover him with a blanket and throughout the month of December, families 'feed' the Tio and then on the 24th, children sing a song and hit him with sticks so that he can poop out sweets. 

Two weekends ago, we were walking around in the Old City and we saw an enormous Caga Tio set up on stage with sticks at the ready so that kids could line up and hit him. So that's exactly what we did.

After the kids finished singing and flogging the poor little log, they get a treat and as you can see the little one was very happy with his lollipop.

Another part of the Catalan celebrations, also poop related, is this traditional little figurine called the caganer or the pooper. This squatting, pooping little guy with his butt showing is part of the traditional Nativity scene and is place alongside Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. I think his poop is supposed to be good luck because it fertilized the soil and meant a good harvest was coming or something. Many people don't know the real reason behind it (pun intended).

 Another shot for the cheap seats in the back. But this is the caganer all decked out in Catalan independence flags. I'm sure you never think of patriotism and poop in the same sentence but there's a first time for everything.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are and however you celebrate.

Bon Nadal a tothom!

Happy Halloween/All Saints Day

As you may remember, last year was our first Halloween in Barcelona and since it's a holiday not really celebrated here, we didn't really know what to do. We ended up dressing the little one up in his pumpkin costume and then sat around at home. This year, we decided to compromise and celebrate both Halloween and All Saints Day which in Barcelona could perhaps also be called The Day of the Chestnut. So yesterday on Halloween we dressed the little one up as a monkey (which we only got him to wear by putting Thomas the Train on tv) and we're having a Halloween picnic on Saturday afternoon with friends. Today, for All Saints Day, we bought some traditional Catalan pastries called panellets and headed out for some roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts which are the typical foods eaten on this day. But contrary to tradition, we did not visit any cemeteries nor spend any time dwelling on the dead. I find those activities a little too morbid for my tastes. I much prefer to spend holidays eating sweets and monkeying around :). 

Hope you guys had a good one! 

An assortment of panellets. The traditional one is the one covered in pine nuts which I wrote about in my post last year. After sampling a few, I'd have to say that my favorite is the one with orange peel inside.

Roasted sweet potatoes. On this day, on many street corners, you will find a woman set up with a little stove roasting chestnuts which they serve hot and wrapped up in newspaper. They also have roasted sweet potatoes like these ones which are considerably messier to eat especially while you're walking. It's just my opinion but I don't think these are an ideal street food. 

A close up of a chestnut. Before we moved to Barcelona, we'd never eaten a chestnut or even seen one whole. So we didn't even know how to eat these and had to ask which was a bit embarrassing.  The woman looked at us like we were from another planet. But actually we're from Miami. 

My little monkey. We tried to get him to hold a banana but he knew we were photographing him and didn't want to oblige. He is a naughty monkey after all. 

Carnaval in Barcelona

This past weekend was carnaval in Barcelona, a time for eating sausages, eggs, and fried dough balls but also a time for dressing up in a crazy costume with crazy hair and makeup to match (think Lady Gaga-esque) and heading out to catch the street parades. Although there are carnaval celebrations all throughout the city (every neighborhood has their own), we went to the old city yesterday to catch the biggest, most showiest parade. My favorite bit was La Taronjada, a traditional part of carnaval which in olden times involved an orange-throwing food fight. Now they just throw orange confetti and orange balloons everywhere which is a lot less sticky albeit a bit less fun.

We took tons of pictures but they all came out rather horrible. Much too horrible to post on a blog at any rate. So I found some pictures that were taken of last year's Taronjada from someone with a decent camera and an ability to frame a shot in such a way that people can actually tell what the photo is of.  Resolution for 2013 (it's never too late!): buy snazzy camera. And learn how to use it.

Happy Carnaval to all!

(Photos: Carnaval de Barcelona 2012's Photostream on Flickr)

King for a Day

On Sunday, the Spanish celebrated El Dia de los Reyes Magos, or the Day of the Three Kings. For those of you who may not be familiar with this holiday, it is a day that celebrates the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus on January 6th, bringing gifts to honor his birth. In Spain, the three kings, not Santa Claus, bring children presents and these gifts are opened on January 6th not on December 25th. On this day, there are also parades in every neighborhood to greet the three kings.

My favorite part of the Three Kings festivities, however, is the special cake that is eaten on this day, called roscon de reyes. It is actually not so much a cake as it is a sweet and eggy bread formed into a circular shape like a doughnut. The bread is normally filled with cream, chocolate, or some other sugary filling and the top is decorated with crystallized fruit. It is a very tasty treat but that's not why I like it. I like it because hidden in the filling is both a bean and a tiny figurine of a king. When the cake is sliced and served, whoever receives the slice with the bean hidden in it has to pay for the cake and whoever receives the slice with the figurine gets to be king for the day. The cakes even come with a paper crown! This year I got the slice with the bean but I'm looking forward to next year when I will have my sweet revenge.

Feliz año nuevo a todos!

Of Pumpkins and Panellets

If you live in the U.S., you celebrated Halloween last week, but if you live in Barcelona, you celebrated both Halloween AND All Saints' Day. Two fun holidays back to back! Although to be fair, Halloween is not quite as big a thing here as it is in the U.S. You don't generally see kids dressed up in costumes or going door to door trick or treating. Here it seems that Halloween is more for the young adults who dress up in macabre outfits and hit the clubs. But given that Halloween is not a Spanish holiday and certainly not a Catalan holiday, I was kind of surprised by how much it has taken root here.  You can buy pumpkins at any grocery store or fruit stand,  you see jack-o-lanterns and spider webs in store windows, and you can bet that any party supply store will have a hundred or so different costumes for little ones and older ones alike.   

However, I feel that for most Catalans, Halloween is merely a warm up for the holiday that really matters, All Saints' Day, or la Castanyada, celebrated on the first of November. This is a day that is all about honoring and remembering the dead. Some people go to mass and others go to cemeteries to visit their loved ones. And because all holidays must be commemorated with food, on All Saint's Day people eat sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts which are sold on many street corners, and panellets which are little balls of marzipan covered with pine nuts.  

The Professor and I did our very best to celebrate both holidays. In recognition of Halloween, we bought pumpkins and decorated our house with spooky decor. We also dressed the little one up for Halloween. But, because trick or treating is not done here, no one actually saw him in his costume except us. We debated taking him out in his costume (after all we paid 12 Euro for it and plus he looked SO cute we wanted to show him off) but we thought it might be a little strange with him being the only baby dressed up. Wouldn't it seem that we were flaunting our Americanness?  So in the end, we stayed home with our dressed up little, eating panellets and trying (for the very first time in our lives!) some roasted chestnuts.  In future years, this holiday will be known as the great pumpkin/panellet compromise.  Hope you guys had a fun week! :)

P.S. Here's a shot of the little one in his first Halloween costume!  Don't you just want to gobble him up?  

New Day

Today, March 20th, is a day that millions of people around the world celebrate and have celebrated for thousands of years.  For most people in the world, this day merely marks the start of the Spring equinox. For Persian people, who do not follow the Gregorian or Western calendar, today is NoRuz (literally meaning "new day"), the first day of the new year.

In the days leading up to this day, Persian people get ready for the new year by cleaning their homes (spring cleaning, if you will), buying new clothes, buying gifts for children, baking cookies and sweets, setting their tables with symbolic items and preparing their homes for the arrival of the many family members and guests who will visit in the upcoming days.

For the Professor and I, living far from family in a city with not many Persian people, today is just Tuesday.  We woke up this morning, gave each other a kiss and wished the other a happy new year, and then proceeded to go about our lives. The Professor went to work and I'm at home getting ready to do the laundry.  Of course, we did do some things to prepare for the new year.  We cleaned the house and even hired a painter to finally paint our bedroom (something I've been putting off because committing to a paint scheme makes me toss and turn at night).  I bought fresh flowers yesterday and even made an attempt to set up a haft-seen, which is a table decorated with seven symbolic items (green sprouts for rebirth, apples for beauty, garlic for health, etc).  Other than that, our main acknowledgement of this holiday will take place tonight when we call my family on Skype and wish them a happy new year. 

This feeling of missing out is something we need to get accustomed to as it is just the reality of being an expat. Sometimes you miss a major holiday that you would have celebrated in your native country while in your adoptive country you find yourself missing out on holidays that you didn't even know about (did you know yesterday, March 19th was Father's Day in Spain?  Neither did we!).  Over time, I suppose the Professor and I will begin incorporating Spanish holidays and celebrations into our lives just as both of our parents (all immigrants to the U.S.) incorporated Thanksgiving, Halloween and Independence Day into theirs. 

Sometimes the idea of losing our holidays makes me a little sad.  It's weird to think that I might wake up one day and think, "Hmm... October 31st.  Why is this day important again?"  But, as the Professor likes to remind me, instead of losing our American holidays we can just celebrate them anyway in addition to all the Spanish ones.  Which means that now we'll have twice as many things to celebrate over the year.  Just imagine!  Two Valentine's Days and two Mother's Days! That's twice as much chocolate and flowers!  Ah, the Professor. He knows how to get me every time.

A very happy Persian New Year to all of you.  May today be a day of sunshine, love, family and peace.

(Photos: Haft-seen, Wheat sprouts)

My perfect Valentine's Day

I'm not hugely into Valentine's Day. I don't send people cards in the mail, I don't decorate my house with pink and red hearts and I don't typically buy my significant other a gift.  But that doesn't mean that I ignore the holiday either! I just prefer doing simple, semi-clichéd, romantic things for my loved one to show them how much I care. Making them their favorite dish or dessert, giving them a long massage (not the usual, ten second, distracted back rub), giving real kisses (not the usual quick peck on the lips) and maybe watching a classic, romantic movie like Casablanca or Roman Holiday.  Unfortunately, as romantic as I try to be on this day, the Professor always seems to outdo me! This morning he woke up two hours earlier than usual and went out to buy flowers and ingredients for french toast. He then served me breakfast in bed and actually was late to work today so he could eat in bed with me.  Somehow a back massage and make-out session don't seem like much in comparison to french toast with raspberries and quince jam!

How do you guys celebrate this holiday? Or don't you?

Happy New Year!

This post is a day late. I meant to wish you guys a happy new year yesterday but the Professor and I were staying in our new apartment which still does not have electricity (so no Internet :/) and no gas. All we have is running water. Ice cold water, I may add. Which means that yesterday not only were we were bored (we watched our cat play with bubble wrap for entertainment), we were also freaking freezing!  I wore two pairs of socks and mittens just to go to sleep.  Fortunately we have our love to keep us warm, eh?  Except that last night I would gladly have traded our love for a roaring fire place and an electric blanket.  Hopefully tonight is our last night living in these 18th century conditions.  

In the meantime, I wanted to pop by to wish you guys all a very happy, very peaceful, and very love-filled 2012.  I found this awesome video of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing what is probably the best version of, "What are you doing New Year´s Eve?"  Enjoy!

We wish you a sh*tty Christmas!

Yes, dear readers.  You are looking at a Christmas tree figurine that is pooping.  Shitting to be more exact.  You may be wondering why someone would make this item.  And why would I have bought it and placed it in our aparthotel near our Christmas tree?  Glad you asked!  It just so happens that this little figure, called a caganer (or shitter in Catalan) is a very old Catalan Christmas tradition.  According to the vendor who sold me this item, the original caganer, which looks like this,  is part of the Nativity scene and is depicted by a peasant dropping his pants and shitting.  The reason for this is thought to be because the caganer's poop will fertilize the soil and lead to a plentiful harvest in the upcoming year.   Nowadays, you can buy a caganer of virtually anybody.  You can buy a shitting Santa Claus, a shitting Lionel Messi, a shitting Barack Obama, a shitting Simpsons character, etc.

Now that we're official Barcelona residents, I thought it appropriate to incorporate a little bit of Catalan culture into our Christmas celebrations.  And even though the Professor and I love the idea of having a pooping Christmas tree in our house, we both wanted a real Christmas tree too.  Did you know that there are only a few places in Barcelona where you can buy real Christmas trees?  We didn't!  Fortunately, one of them was near our aparthotel in the Barrio Gotico.  Around this time of year, there is an annual Christmas fair called la Fira de Santa Llucia.  At this fair, you can buy real and artificial trees, ornaments, caganers, misteltoe, holly branches, lights, and all things Christmas related.  Here are some pictures we took at the fair.

These little logs above are called Caga Tio's.  They are another old Catalan Christmas tradition. The idea is that in the month of December, the family "feeds" the Tio and then on Christmas Eve, the kids beat it with little sticks and sing a song and the Caga Tio is supposed to poop out sweets.  Kind of like a defecating piñata.

Yesterday the Professor and I went to the Christmas fair and we bought a teeny, tiny pine tree that stands proudly at two feet tall.  Then when we returned to our aparthotel, we put on some Christmas music and decorated it.   Here's how it came out.

There's no reason why you can't make Christmas feel like Christmas even though you're many miles from home and staying in a hotel.  Don't you agree?

Merry Christmas to you all! Feliz Navidad! Bon Nadal!