Christmas break

The holiday season has just wrapped up here in Spain. It goes a bit longer than in the U.S. which tends to end at the New Year because here on the 6th of January the three Wisemen bring gifts to all the children. This is a bigger deal to most than Santa although our girls will be able to experience both since I love Santa! There is always a big parade on th 5th of January where the three Kings throw gifts and candy to kids but more on that later.

Over our Christmas break we were pretty busy. First we started on the nursery, taking out the furniture that was already there to make room for two cribs and all that seems to come with expecting twins. Jose painted the room a mint green color but it's still quite a work in process (we are waiting for our curtains and the rest of the furniture). I also started washing all their clothes, blankets, sheets, etc.

We went back to the doctor (we are going every two weeks at this point) and things looked good except I failed my one hour glucose test and had to have the dreaded three hour test. It sucked to say the least. If no one has had the pleasure of having a glucose test it goes a little something like this: first for the one hour test they take a blood sample and then you chug a disgusting bottle of what I can only describe as a flat orange flavored  overly sugared pop. Then you wait for an hour and they take another blood sample to compare how your body processes glucose. I failed this first test by one measly point and my doctor recommended doing the longer one since I am expecting twins. The three hour test is much the same as the first but instead of just two blood samples they take four and you have to wait around much longer. Woof. I am still awaiting my results when we go back next week.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with Jose's extended family in their village where all his grandparents (he still has three!), aunts, uncles and cousins live. Vera and Laura were spoiled this year with gifts. Jose's cousin dressed up as Santa and of course we ate way too much.

We celebrated New Year's Eve with friends beginning with lunch and going into the evening. I made it until right after the countdown and eating of the grapes tradition before I had to call it a night. We had a lot of fun though and are hoping this becomes a tradition.

One of the gifts that I gave Jose was spending a couple of nights in the Sierra de Huelva in a rural house that we had visited with friends last year. The weather didn't cooperate that much and it rained but it was relaxing. We visited a small village called Linares de la Sierra which is famous for having entryways to houses that are make of stones placed in different designs. The food we ate there was great.

Lastly we celebrated the arrival of the three Wisemen in Jose's hometown. We arrived kind of late just in time to see the tail end of the parade before meeting up with some friends. This year we didn't catch any toys but that was mostly because I didn't want to cram my big stomach into a crowd of overzealous kids and parents jumping and pushing for whatever they can grab. 

All in all it was a good Christmas break. We got to relax and enjoy ourselves. Jose kept mentioning how this would be our last year without the girls and how different it will be next year. It's true but I can't wait.