Christmas + Holidays 2019

Our holiday season in Spain has (finally) come to an end -- I know I am a little late to the post holiday recap but for us it only ended two weeks ago and I am finally getting our lives back in order.  After our trip to Florence, we hit the ground running with Christmas ballet recitals, school performances, parties and more --

Serafina had her first ballet recital and she freaking ROCKED it.  This was the first time on stage where she didn't completely freak out from stage freight and I am not sure who was more proud, us or her!  Then a few days later she had her Christmas dance performance at school and she ROCKED that too -- again just having so much fun on stage dancing!

For Christmas we spent Christmas Eve with friends at their house with of course no pictures because too much fun was being had. We rushed home late to put out cookies for Santa and get to sleep... Or Serafina went to sleep and Trevor and I played Santa which is seriously so much fun!

Christmas morning was amazing.  Serafina had been asking for a Barbie Dream house for months so we went all out and got her a HUGE doll house!  She had a blast and in true Serafina fashion, she was more excited about the presents she got for Trevor and I than the ones she got.  It was the sweetest thing.

best we could get!

We also had our very good friends over for brunch -- a waffle and mimosa bar.  The kids had so much fun playing with all their new toys and the adults had fun just hanging out.  It was a wonderful Christmas.

Then we had a relaxing week (with Serafina of course being sick) before we celebrated New Years and this year we had the party at our house!  We had our close friends over, ate and drank and the kids ran wild -- then around 11PM we made our way to the main plaza in our town to ring in the New Year!  And yes all the kids came with us, this is Spain -- kids come to every big event and party and stay up very late!  The parents ate their grapes at midnight and toasted with champagne while the kids ate M&Ms and toasted with sparking fruit juice (called Magic).  Serafina thought it was the most fun night ever and loved celebrating with all of her friends.

We then had another few days to recover before the next (and final holiday) -- Three Kings Day (read more about it here).  This is the big holiday for Spain.  The Kings enter the cities on January 5th, usually in the morning and kids have a chance to tell them what they want and talk with the Kings.  Then in the evening there is a parade through each town -- each King has a float and throws candy and toys to all the people along the route.  It is crazy and fun and wild and seriously one of my most favorite days of the entire year.

And then the Kings deliver presents that night (much like Santa on Christmas Eve), so Serafina was excited to leave out some treats for the Kings and wake up to find they had left her a few gifts on the morning of January 6th!

And then after three holidays in two and a half weeks, we were all exhausted and ready to get back into our routine of school, work and life.  But we had another wonderful holiday season in Spain!