Part 1

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

I'm going to document Christmas in a few parts, since they were all pretty distinct for me and the camera with all the photos is in my dad's pueblo in Eastern Spain (that'll be explained later). This entry will be entirely text recounting the past week or so.

The first real event was Christmas Eve, which in some ways is a bigger deal than Christmas day. It's called Nochebuena, and it's traditionally the night where the family gathers to celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday. Since Spain is largely Catholic, the story of Jesus' birth is recounted many times in many different manners, there are Nativity Scenes set up everywhere that you turn and all the little kids have at least one or two plays recounting the story. We all got very dressed up and went to my Grandpa's house in Las Matas which is inbetween Madrid and Majadahonda. My grandpa was a successful architect in his life, so he has space to accomodate the entire family.... 42 of us in total, 23 first cousins alone. When we got there, the normally freezing house was warm with bodies and the heat from the kitchen and just general joy and anticipation. It was, in some ways, similar to a made-for-TV movie with every family member hugging the other and giving the 2 traditional kisses. In the middle of it all, my Grandpa was standing with his normal, thick, knitted dark green and blue sweater, with his hands behind his back, humming pretty loudly, but to himself. I wonder what he could have been feeling or thinking with all those souls, small and large gathered around him enjoying one another, knowing that he had ultimately made it all possible.

Los Reyes Magos (or the Three Kings) bring the gifts to the children here in Spain. Santa Claus exists (Papa Noel) but he is considered more "American" and is celebrated in "modern" households (those were the exact words Bea used to describe it to me... I'm not quite sure what it means). The Three Kings don't bring the gifts until the night of the 6th of January, we wake up on the 7th and find them. However, in this family, they also bring one gift for each child and hide it somewhere in the house. One by one the kids start sniffing around for the presents, they slowly form a sort of parade, streaming in and out of rooms with aunts guiding the little ones and eventually the entire family following behind, searching for the room with the gifts. Eventually, we found the room, each cousin has a wrapped present with their name on it. Bea recieved pajamas, Jacobo a telescope, and I got a small bag and makeup. My grandfather gives each of his grandchildren 50 euros, and I was included in that as well, a great relief for a broke exchange student. All the smaller cousins ducked in and out of their parents legs and escaped aunts reaching for sloppy kisses, posing quickly for pictures and then moving back to their new dolls or lego sets. It was general chaos and extremely hot, with wrapping paper flying in every possible direction and flashes of cameras hitting you when you least expected it.

Eventually we moved to another part of the house, where we usually eat meals and congregate every Saturday, and formed a circle, each person holding a wrapped present. This was my favorite part of the evening, the Secret Santa gift exchange. The Spanish are known for their fiestas, they're known for their lively and rowdy dispositions. But I've never seen anything like this. One by one they chant a cousin's name, staring with the youngest who is only 3 months old. That person walks (or in Pilar's case, is carried) into the center and your Secret Santa, the other cousin meets you in the middle and hands you the gift. With the entire family hooting and hollering ("It's a book!" "It's a box!" "It's a book in a box!") the cousin opens their gift, poses for a few hasty photos and then is swept out of the center with the next cousin's name being chanted. I was inserted where Javi normally is and my older cousin Begonia gave me a fantastic scarf, one that I genuinely love. It's understood that the parents shop for the gifts of the Secret Santas, so I thanked my aunt as well as Begonia for the gift, being chanted on and whistled at like all the rest. The respective parents then exchange all their gifts, the six adult couples trade within each other and the entire family pitches in for one giant present for the Abuelo. Everyone was laughing and cheering, some of the smaller boys immediately adorning their Batman and Spiderman suits and running wildly ducking and stabbing at invisible enemies, while the older family members teased one another and swept off to the dinner.

Downstairs an enormous table was set with 36 places, a smaller table off to the side for the young cousins who prefer to sit with each other... the "little kids table" in my family at home. We dined on soup and whole shrimp with mayo (I discovered that it's against the law to sell pre-peeled shrimp when they are the larger variety, the peels and eyes and legs all are testament to how fresh the animal is). We ate various kinds of meat, several types of cakes and pies, drank CocaCola and water and ate the finest bread with the finest cheese. The older cousins went back upstairs for a while, to recouperate and escape the noise and just enjoy one another's company for a while. I have a cousin named Joaquin who is convinced that a type of bracelet that he wears helps maintain his balance and equilibrium, so we enjoyed ourselves testing his theories (all of which I failed miserably, surprise surprise).

We went back downstairs eventually to watch the littler kids put on a small rendition of the Christmas Story that Jacobo had written. Jacobo is a very serious 10-year-old and takes his acting in the same regard. He was intent on having a lovely production, and got a little frustrated when the 6-year-old Angel started climbing on top of the stable when he was supposed to be holding guard over it on a chair. The play was all around adorable and hilarious, however, all the parents cheered and whooped, and it was performed a second time, just for extra clarity :) Some Christmas Carols were sung (although in Spanish they're more like party songs, a celebration as opposed to a quiet, solemn reminder that we have in Silent Night and the First Noel). We all made it back home at about 2:30, spoiling my cousins' plans to go out to clubs later that night. I've found that no night is sacred from the Spanish fiesta here, people find any reason at all to party until the sun comes up. Considering that Bea and I had to wake up the next day (Christmas day) to go to my dad's pueblo, we wouldn't have probably gone anyways, but I was still pretty shocked just at the idea. We all left one another with 2 kisses, 2 besos, and sat content on the ride home, discussing nothing at all, I was in total awe at the entire night, knowing then and there that this would be one of those things I'd look back on with a giant smile and a peace and testament to how valuable these years abroad and this cultural adventure really is.