New traditions

Christmas is not a new holiday for me, but I´ve had some opportunities to celebrate in new ways this year. While Christmas trees are common here (although often plastic or just a cone shaped figure of lights), it is equally or more important to have a nativity scene. These are found in homes as well as public spaces. I went to see a very large one organized by the city of the Madrid. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo to show the scale - you wait line for 10-30 minutes, then slowly inch through a space the size of a small auditorium. It contained about ten different scenes from Jesus´ birth, plus an entire village - a mill with a functioning waterwheel, a carpet seller, farmers, etc. The only strange part was that they ran the line so that time went in reverse - we started with the holy family fleeing to Egypt and ended with Mary hearing from an angel that she would give birth. But maybe Spaniards know the story so well that it doesn´t matter.

Most kids just get a small present on Christmas Eve, though, because the real action is on Three Kings Day. You´ll note that that mean that the holidays stretch for more than two weeks. The night before Three Kings Day, on January 5th, cities and neighborhoods hold parades in which the kings enter the city. I went downtown to the biggest parade. It was packed with people, maybe 10-15 people deep, everywhere. The parents bring stepstools for the small children to stand on and peer over the crowd. Each king arrives on his own float with the appropriate animal (either a camel, an elephant, or a horse) and everyone on all the floats throws massive amounts of candy, which people scoop up. I managed to catch a few to give to my friends´ kids. If you go to the neighborhood parades, the spectacle is smaller but I´ve heard that the candy haul is much bigger.

If you leave turrón and hay for the kings and their animals and have been good, the kings bring you presents during the night. Then you can spend the holiday with your family playing with your new toys and eating. The kings didn´t bring me anything, but I still celebrated with the traditional Roscón de Reyes, a sweet bread-like cake that is filled with cream. 

I can´t wait to see what Easter is like here.

Winter holidays

The rest of my holiday was spent in Ohio, with my parents and brother´s family. We mainly stayed at home, which was convenient in their very big house. We aren´t able to get all seven of us together every year, so this was a nice treat. I especially appreciated my brother´s family coming from the West Coast, saving me hours of extra travel.

Christmas breakfast with overnight cinnamon rolls and lots of fresh berries.

Teenagers found ways to get some space from the adults.

There may have been a bet regarding this stick, which was then carried through the woods for a mile. Sticks can be surprisingly heavy.

I usually plan holiday meals. This year I didn´t feel like spending all day in the kitchen, so we went to the historic indoor market in downtown Cleveland and bought tons of handmade pierogis. In the US, pierogis are usually found in the freezer section, stuffed with potato and maybe cheese. Cleveland had lots of Polish immigrants, and now you can buy awesome flavors like black bean & jalapeno, or barbeque chicken, although my favorite turned out to be sauerkraut.

Video games were played. It turns out that my father is pretty good at dodging bad guys, but VR headsets make me instantly nauseous, so I´ll be maintaining my spectator status in the future.