Share the Gift

I really like this short video the church put out for Christmas.  So I will share it today.

Winter Bazaar

Last Saturday ASB held a winter bazaar and invited parents to purchase a table to sell food as well as new or used items.  My friend Gorana and I have been make jewelry together since April, so we signed up for a table.  We met each other last year because we are both in the same Spanish class for parents of ASB students.   We made leather beaded bracelets, Chen Lu wrap bracelets and some Christmas jewelry for kids.  Nathan and Ciara wanted to participate too, so they made Rainbow Loom Christmas keychain charms.

I also made fabric gift bags and several batches of cracker toffee bars, which is a recipe that I make every year.  I called it Christmas Crac, after our favourite cereal here in Spain called Golden Crac.  It's very easy to make once you get the hang of it.  I did burn two batches though.  Here is a recipe, http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/12/saltine-cracker-english-toffee.html. 

I can't say that the bazaar was a great success for us, but we did have excellent weather.  It was a beautiful sunny 17 degrees. We sold a few things, mostly bags of cracker toffee.  Nathan and Ciara sold 4 Rainbow loom charms so they earned 4€.

In any case, it was fun to talk with other parents and I got to watch Rylan play an exhibition game of flag football.  This is Rylan's second year playing football at ASB.  He really enjoys it and he's getting pretty good.  He was named MVP of the game as he scored more touchdowns than anyone else.

Arantxa, Socorro, Amerigo and Chris vist the winter bazaar

This was our table

Some examples of the leather bracelets Gorana and I make

More leather bracelets

flag football game

Rylan the MVP

For Goodness Hake!

I have decided to cook fish more often because it is a big part of the local diet.  I have never been a big fan of cooking with fish because of the bones but I love to eat it.  I want my kids to experience a variety of fish dishes, not just Bob's "tuna surprise."  So my challenge has been to find fish dishes that are not hard to make, but my kids will eat.

Hake (merluz in Spanish) is very abundant and relatively cheap here, so after a quick search on the internet, I found a recipe for Hake Bobotie http://www.fishisthedish.co.uk/recipes/greatforkids/main-meals/954-hake-bobotie  which is a South African curried fish bake.

Here is what my hake bobotie looked like:

Here was my family's reaction:

For the record, it was pretty good.  And I only had to eat it for 2 more days.

We have a teenager!

On Friday Dec. 12th, Nathan turned 13 years old.  We celebrated his birthday on Monday Dec. 8th because it was a holiday here in Spain.  We decided to buy a family membership for Tibidabo which is a small amusement park in Barcelona.  It's quite a nice place to visit because it's on the top of the Collserola mountains just behind Barcelona so you get amazing views of the city.  We had never been before, so it was exciting for the kids.  Because we have 4 children, it was actually cheaper to buy a family membership than for our whole family to buy day passes.  As well, with the membership we got a 30% discount off day passes for 6 friends which worked out perfectly because Nathan wanted to invite 4 friends from school and Manju and Asvin came with us as well.

Now that Nathan is a teenager, we let him and his four buddies go off on their own, and we really didn't see them for the next four hours.  It was a cold day, but at least the park wasn't too busy so the kids were able to go on ride after ride, without waiting in any long line-ups.

I am definitely too old for amusement parks.  I felt pretty dizzy on any ride that rocks or spins.  Fortunately Bob was there so that we could take turns riding with Cole.  Unfortunately he was too short to go on most of the rides by himself.

Nathan and his friends had a blast and all of our kids can't wait to go again.  Now that we have a family membership, we can go for free for an entire year, so all of our kids can have their birthdays there.

Jin, Steven, Ignacio, Mathis, Nathan, Cole, Rylan, Ciara and Asvin

The Cathedral right beside Tibidabo park.  It is lit up at night, and you can see it from anywhere in Barcelona

A rare picture of Bob and I together

Cole and Avsin on the viking ships

Ciara, Bob and Cole actually waited over 30 minutes to go on this ride 

Asvin and Nathan with Barcelona in the background

A trip to Vic

This past weekend, we attended the Medieval fair in the town of Vic.  Vic is about 1 hour north of Barcelona.  Bob's co-workers highly recommended going as it is apparently the best Medieval fair around.  So we set out on Saturday afternoon and spent a good 3 hours walking around the fair.  There was definitely a lot going on.  I was impressed that all the venders as well as performers were dressed in Medieval costumes.  There was plenty of food to sample and activities for the kids.  It was pretty crowed though, and in 3 hours, we had only seen about half of the fair.  I guess it means we need to go back again next year :)

The blacksmith

Ciara getting her head chopped off

A knight getting suited up

Our favourite stand at the fair, strands of giant licorice 

It's okay to sell swords, bows and arrows to kids as long as it's a Medieval Fair.

Main Cathedral in Vic

Inner courtyard of the Cathedral

Gothic carvings

Balloon Swords

Judo

Nathan had to make a website about him doing Judo for his technology class, so I thought that I would share a bit of the footage we took for the website.  Nathan and Ciara both go to JudoTao a judo club in Can Vidalet, just about a 10 minute drive from our place.  They both train Tuesdays and Thursday evenings, Ciara at 6:30pm until 7:30pm and then Nathan from 7:30pm to 8:30pm.  It ends up that either Bob and I have to spend a large portion of the evening shuffling the two of them back and forth from Judo, but we are more than willing to do it.  I'm just happy that they both enjoy it and really want to progress.  I think that practicing Judo has also increased their confidence.  I hope that it keeps up :)

Nathan putting Rylan in a hold

Ciara's Cupcake Party

Ciara's actual birthday was on October 24th, but we finally had her birthday party last Saturday.  As she started school again just a few days before her birthday, I thought that we should wait for awhile so that she could invite any new friends that she made in her class.

For the party, we hired Cristina Vacas from Mis Dulces Pastelitos to come and do a cupcake decorating workshop for the girls.  Cristina is the girlfriend of Socorro and Amerigo's son.  Socorro showed me her website a few months ago and I have had the opportunity to eat some of her cakes so I knew that she did really good work.  Each girl got to decorate 4 cupcakes and learned some decorating technics.  They all did a fantastic job, and in the end everyone's cupcakes looked professionally decorated.  They each got a fancy box to take their cupcakes home and a certificate.

I think that the party went really well.  The girls had fun and it was a great opportunity for Ciara to socialize with some of her classmates outside of school.

Cupcake Workshop

From left to right: Rut, Carlota, Noelia, Cristina, Martina, Maria Belen, Maria, Ciara 

Ciara's Cupcakes

Girls receiving their certificates