Monday, January 07, 2008

Family gathering for t 3 Kings’ day, goodbye Christmas, congratulations Mario and "reise fieber"


Susi in the morning of the 3 Kings' day by the tree. Funnily enough the 3 Kings brought us a few goodies this year!
Hi again
Just as we thought our visitors were over for this Christmas, we got a surprise call on 4th January from Alejandro, Eladio’s younger and somewhat unpredictable brother at times. Pili and Andrés had just left for Mérida and we were not expecting anyone else for a while. Alejandro rang to say they were thinking of either going to Galicia or Madrid for Reyes (The 3 Kings). Eladio said he was welcome anytime, of course, but would he please let us know his final plans for the sake of logistics. And they did come, but at about midnight the next day when we were just going to bed!!!

We were very pleased to welcome them and settled them in for the night after sitting and chatting for a bit. José Antonio and Dolores were coming the next day for lunch, so 3 of the 6 brothers and sisters would be together for the final Christmas festivity.

Lunch was thus a big affair as we were to be 9. So I made very British roast lamb and trimmings which I hope they liked. I was not without help as Marisa lent a very welcome hand.

In the afternoon we spent time in our candlelit lounge and Alejandro played my Grandmother’s piano, much to the delight of my Father. To work off the lunch and get some appetite for going out to dinner, we took our visitors on our daily walk which we extended in length for the occasion.

Dinner was at Los Pescaitos, the place we discovered with Amanda in Boadilla and a good dinner it was in all respects. Some of it was spent reminiscing on how I had met Eladio which was, of course, through Dolores. She reminded she had told me at the time that he would make a great husband!!! Well, she wasn’t wrong there was she.

Eladio, Alejandro and Toño at Los Pescaitos

The 6 of us at Los Pescaitos

Toño and Dolores very romantic together. You look great.
And today, 7th January is a national holiday which for us has been spent resting a bit after the excesses of Christmas. Today we also put away all the decorations, lights and trees which is such a sad affair. And here are the pictures to prove it.

Eladio putting away the Xmas stuff

Tomorrow will be the start of a new chapter in our lives. The girls have to face stiff annual examinations (some final) and I have a lot of work to do preparing for media activities at the 3GSM congress in Barcelona next month, to mention just one heavy task coming up.

Eladio and I have something to look forward to and that is our still unplanned 25th wedding anniversary honeymoon. Will it be China, will it be India, will it be Vietnam, Africa, where will it be and when? I am already travelling in my mind and each time I visit flight pages such as edreams, for example, I begin to feel the “reise fieber”. I don’t know if that’s how you spell it but it’s a German term my Mother used to use every time we used to travel and is equivalent to “butterflies” in your stomach from the excitement of travelling.

There will me more about that when we have done some more planning.

Just before I sign off, a word of congratulations to Mario and his Castilla León handball team who won the championship played this last week in Mérida. They beat Madrid to play the semi final against Galicia. They then beat Galicia and faced Cataluña in the final which they won yesterday. It is a great feat to be national champions.

Cheers till my next post.

Masha

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