It’s not enough nowadays to simple have a birthday party you also need to celebrated in school with all your friends.. Lucky for me I had to go and entertain 23 kids for one hour.. Yes, lots of fun…. I brought them snacks and candy and read them a story..

For the most part they paid attention but really, the rest of the time they spent yelling, screaming, crying, laughing, fighting with each other, asking me questions, telling me they had to go pipi or caca, singing, dancing, talking, climbing, painting, playing with toys, spilling things….ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! I definitely would not make it as a kindergarten teacher for more than 10 min…

Overall, the kids had a great time.. I guess.. and I have a huge headache. I’m glad the next birthday is not until December!! I think I will have time to recover…maybe…

To see the rest of the pics click HERE

What the hell is that you are asking? Well, let me tell you, here in Spain the holidays are not over until we celebrate “Los Reyes Magos” (the three kings day), this holiday is one of the biggest of the year, it is as big as Christmas day, most children in Spain receive their holiday gifts today and not Christmas day. It has a more religious meaning than Santa Claus and therefore is considered a very special day.

One of my favorite traditions of this day is the “Roscon de Reyes” (pictured above) a special round cake that is consumed with hot thick chocolate.. Last night we went to a parade, where the Three Kings arrived and threw candy and toys at the kids, and after this we went to a neighbors house to have the traditional cake!

We have to compromise and the gift giving and it is done half and half so there are no issues. The kids get to receive presents twice (doesn’t mean they get more, just in two separate days). Today Marco and Bella woke up to gifts from the Reyes and were very excited. Today is their last day of vacation, so they made sure they enjoyed it to the fullest.

I’m sad the holidays are over they went way to fast but in another way I do want to get back to the routine. How were your holidays? Are you ready for 2008? You can view our first January 2008 photos here.

This year was a very special year for us because the kids are at that special age when Santa Claus is more real than they are and the joy in their hearts when they open their gifts is emense.

Marco and Bella could not sleep the night before and were very anxious to find out if they had been naughty or nice, they left Santa drawings, milk and cookies and finally feel asleep. Marco woke up around 7:30 am and came to our bed to let us know that Santa had arrived, eating the cookies, drank the milk and left a Thank You note!!! we told him to go back to sleep because we were not getting up yet… poor thing, he did as was told but after a couple of more tries we had to choice to get out of bed.

Isabella was in awe, she didn’t know what to do, she got the baby she had been waiting for, barbies and many other goodies, Marco got a game for him game boy and many other super heros and board games he had also asked for..

They were both so excited and have been playing with their toys ever since.. I envy their inocense and sometimes wish we could see life like that again..

You could see all the pictures of the Christmas morning here

Another year has gone by and as I’m sure everyone feels, it went by too fast. It’s funny how time seems to go by so slow when we are young and in a hurry to grow up and how fast it becomes when we are all grown up and just want to be a kid again. Personally, this is my last year in my thirties, next year I will turn the big 40 and a new era in my life will begin and I’m ready.

This year as every year has been full of adventures. Marco turned 6 and Isabella 3. Birthday parties with their friends and all the fun and gifts that go along with the celebration were shared. They have become closer this year and play a lot more together, although they fight a lot too. Isabella for some reason thinks she is Marco’s mother and takes care of him like if he were her own son. Marco doesn’t like that too much but sometimes I think he actually does but doesn’t want to admit it.

This year I became an aunt, my brother and his wife had a baby boy Tristan who will become my Godson in February when we go to Miami in 2008 for the baptism.

Marco continues to play the piano and is now learning to play the guitar, which my father and MT bought him for his birthday. He also continues with Judo and of course soccer. He is an avid reader and his teachers have only great things to say about him. He is becoming more responsible although he is still a bit in his own little world.

Isabella is still a hand full and thinks she is about 20 years old. She started dance classes this year and loves it. The teacher thinks she has talent, so we will see. Isabella is on to everything and spends her days asking us questions or actually giving us answers. Sometimes I think she doesn’t even need us ..

Matt is also finding himself professionally here. His Spanish is really coming a long great and is a lot more fluent and confident. He is working in a large recording studio and has many interesting projects he is working on. He is very busy and a little frustrated with the Spanish work life but is finding a way to shape people up share his enthusiasm for life.

I’,m a busy working mom that has no time for anything yet has time for it all. I’m enjoying our life here in Spain and watching the kids grow up to be two different, very different individuals. I’m still working part time in a PR firm and loving it. I started doing Yoga again and I’m hoping to find a ballet studio near (actually find the time) so I could maybe take some classes again.

Overall, we have been blessed with health and love and couldn’t be happier. Yes, there have been good times and bad but we are struggling through life like the rest of you and enjoying every minute.

I hope 2008 brings health, love and happiness to all of you. I do hope to see some of you this way next year..

Love

Nuria

Ok, I kept receiving different e-mails from a lot of you with elf yourself on the subject, I was a little busy and didn’t have time to check it out, but once I finally did, boy was I glad.. I have not laughed this hard in a long time.

You need to elf yourself if you haven’t already. All you need to do is go to http://www.elfyourself.com

and personalize your little elf’s, they do a great little dance. click HERE

to see the Dela Pola’s dance…hahahahah

Merry Christmas

We forget about the little holidays that are special to us when we are in a different country. Although Spain has plenty of holidays (pretty much, every day is a holiday here..there is a reason for celebration, or an excuse to get off work for weeks.. every month), there are still some holidays that we do miss, for example the fourth of July, Memorial day and of course Thanksgiving.

Well, this year my father and Mary Tery came for a visit and we took the opportunity to celebrate this wonderful holiday together. Although trying to gather all the ingredients here for an authentic Thanksgiving meal was a venture on its own. My dad had to smuggle the cranberry sauce, which no one has a clue what it is here, I had to order the turkey weeks in advanced from a specialty meat company and I had to search for sweet potatoes all over town.. and forget about pumpkin pie, that was one thing we just couldn’t manage to find.

But overall, we had a wonderful time. It was great to be with my dad and MT and the kids really enjoyed their visit. We spent all weekend eating and enjoying the family. My father and MT left today for a cruise and the kids are going to miss the spoiling their grandparents gave them.

If you want to see all the pictures of our Thanksgiving four day event click HERE….

Wow! I can’t believe I’m actually writing this blog. What a day, it is Halloween and even though its not a big holiday here, actually it is not even a holiday at all, the actual holiday is tomorrow November 1st called “all saints day”, a day of the dead, where you should go to the cemetery and place flowers on the tombstones of relatives that have past away…

Anyway, I decided it would be fun if I organized a Halloween party in our urbanization to show these Spaniards what Halloween is all about..My neighbors were not that sure at first but after a little persuasion they all contributed. We made Halloween food, we all dressed up and we even made a haunted house.

We had an awesome time and the kids loved it!! They had a blast.. they loved the haunted house, the little ones were petriffied… I don’t know how I pulled it off, party organizing is not as easy as it sounds..but, it was a success, Bella couldn’t stop crying and Marco punched a volunteer scarer in the haunted house because he was soooo scared..hahahahaa.

Overall, we had a great, great time.. I want to thank Cristina for her awesome food, Eugenia for her creative drawings, Elena and Jose for their Spider cake, Arancha and family for joining in the fun, Melissa and Alex for scaring and kids as well as decorating the haunted house, and all the kids who made the night so special.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES

Yes, its fiesta time again in Alicante and the Valencian commnunity which means no school, no work, pretty much the entire region stops and there is nothing we can do. Half the time we don’t even know what the holiday is for but as long as we have a day off from work we are happy. I asked Marco what they had told him at school the holiday was for, so I could at least pretend to know what is going on.. but I knew not to trust the response of a 5 year old who a few minutes before had shown me a picture he had drawn of the countries of the world and explained to me that Russia was next to Mallorca!! Anyway, I figured it was still worth a try to ask him about the holiday. He said it was something to do with the moors and Christians, then he said no, no I think its something about “valencea” pronounced that way in valenciano the official language here which not many people bother to learn.

So after realizing that Marco was not going to be much help I figured I would educate myself and find out why the hell the kids where off from school and why I got a mini vacation during the week. It seems some King called Jaime I, entered the province of Valencia in 1238 and made up some new laws which ruled until about 1707.. I have a link at the bottom if you are interested in reading more about it.. All I know is we are now home relaxing and having a very nice time with the entire family..

more information valenciatrader
picture google