Christmas summary! Resumen de Navidad!

Tengo el blog bastante abandonado desde que he vuelto al trabajo ya no tengo tanto tiempo para ponerme a escribir, por las noches estoy algo más cansada y nunca veo el momento de actualizar este blog. Hemos pasado el mes de Diciembre y el de Enero y hemos hecho muchas cosas, nos hubiera gustado hacer muchas más pero todo llegará. En Diciembre tuvimos el cumpleaños de Marco en su casa y tanto Nicolas como Alec se lo pasaron bomba!!! de esto no tengo foto pero seguro que se vais al blog de Nuria podeis ver alguna. Su blog es http://www.marcobella.com/ Despues llegaron las vacaciones de Navidad y se puso Alec muy malito con gastroenteritis, esto ha sido lo peor de estos dos meses, no paraba de vomitar y de tener diarrea y aunque lo hidratábamos con suero al final tambien vomitaba esto, con lo cual tuvo que ser ingresado en el hospital para que no se deshidratara. Estuvo alli dos días, hasta la noche de nochebuena que pudimos, menos mal, pasarla con la familia. Forgeting this bad episode we had many days of fun after that. The happiness when you see your kids faces open up the Christmas presents or looking at the Three Wise Men in the parade makes us forget about the bad times!!!! We also spend one day in the Christmas Carnival called ExpoNadal and they loved it!!!

We had the typical meals with the family although we missed a lot the other half of the family (on Tracy´s side) At least we got to talk to Brett on his birthday for a long time and it was cool because we talked to him when Tracy was driving and we all could hear him and talk. It was just like if he was hanging out in the car with us!!!

New Years Eve!!!! We stayed home with the kids, uncle David came for dinner and uncle Hector came right before midnight to share the tradition with us, eating the twelve grapes at midnight. Nicolas was so excited I could not believe he was going to make it to that time and he did. I tried to get drunk during dinner but it didnt work, I guess I ate too much!!!!!!!!! just joking. After the grapes we danced for a little bit, we got a phone call from Loreto, Emilio, Nuria and Kike and their kids and Nicolas got to say Happy New Year at 1 am, to his little friends isnt´t it crazy? right after that he passed out! Pongo una foto de Nicolas conmigo bailando con los gorritos y otra de los abuelos que pasaron antes de la cena para traernos calamares rellenos de carne!!! esta abuela es una caña, no tiene solución. El caso es que se iban de marcha y antes pararon por casa. Pongo una foto de ellos porque se merecen "everything" por todo lo que hacen por nosotros y por sus nietos. Sois los mejores!!!!!!!!!!!

Por último no quiero olvidarme del concierto de Estefanía, Matt is working, promoting her as a new singer, she is very young and she has a great voice. We went to El Gran Teatro at Elche to see this Christmas concert on the 4th of January, we left Alec with abu and abuela and we took Nicolas with us. He had no clue what a concert was like and he enjoyed it!! He said his favorite part was when Santa Claus came on stage with a bunch of kids!!!

I also turned 38 this Christmas!!! but I will post this in the next entry since we got to go out for dinner with our friends WITHOUT KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We usually celebrate my birthday together with Alicias and Mavi´s birthday, since our birthdays are in January. it was a shame though that not every body made it to come wiht us for dinner. Eli and Christian, Loreto and Emilio and Matt and Nuria couldn´t make it . Hopefully next year!

trip on the trolley!!!

Nicolas loves to ride the new trolley that takes us downtown. For him it is like going on an adventure. He is having a hard time lately, we think it has to do with me going back to work. I am working only part time and I get home at 1´15 pm monday thru friday. I spend most of the day with them, I pick them up at school, eat lunch with them, snacks later, take them to the playground after school or music class on tuesdays.... and then dinner, bath... everything, but even though I am with them most of the day, Nicolas feels the difference because when he wakes up I am already at work and I dont give him breakfast anymore or dress him during the week anymore.
So, we took this trip to downtown Alicante and we left Alec with daddy. We decided to go to the city hall square after waking around the harbor for a while, buying balloons, talking... The city hall square becomes an antique market on sundays and "abu" (that's how nicolas and alec call my dad, their grandpa from Spain) has a stall with other friend over there. He exchanges old postcards, coins, stamps...and other things, they buy and sell and he loves it; it is his hobby. Nicolas hangs out with him every saturday all day long and half a day on sundays he loves his abu. After a short visit to his table in this market place, we continued with our field trip waking to the beach and then going back home on the trolley again. I will post a couple of pictures of this day!!

At the playground with "tía Mamen"

I promised tia Mamen I was going to post this picture on the blog. This was at the beggining of november. She spent that evening with us and she´s been friends with me forever, we met each other when we were 9 years old. In spite of not being a relative we call her aunt (tia) Mamen. We don´t see each other as often as we would like, due to our schedules,kids... and the crazy busy life everybody lives nowadays. Here goes the picture playing with Alec in the park.

Special time with daddy!

Nicolas loves to go hiking with his daddy. Here they are a few weekends ago in the cape near home. It is beautiful because there are rocks, mountain and the mediterranean sea all together.

Nicolas had a blast and Tracy too!!!!!!!

All Saint´s Day

Here in Spain Halloween is not a holiday at all, althoug it is gaining popularity and we are sure in about 10 years it will be big (globalization consequence) Anyways the holiday here is November first, it is called All Saint´s Day. It is a day to remember loved ones that passed away and most people go to the cementery to put flowers in the tumbstones of relatives, friends... Usually today the amount of people going there makes it impossible to park and it is better if you go another day (although the custom is going today). So today November first we went to eat a typical meal in a village nearby. You can eat this kind of Gaspachos only in Alicante region. It is a pasta soup with chicken, although in the village where this dish was created they eat them with rabbit also. We went there today it is called Castalla. Our family friend MCarmen was visiting from England, we had a different day out, sharing memories of the relatives that passed away. She is a friend of my mom since they were very little.

Here they are: my aunt, my mom and her friend Mari Carmen. They are friends since they were todlers, isn`t it great to have friends from that time of our lives still??

Halloween party at Matt and Nuria´s

This was our first real Halloween party here in Spain. I am so glad Nuria and Matt invited us to their urbanization to enjoy this party. Thank you Nuria and Matt!!!!!!!! Nicolas was very excited all day thinking about his ghost custom and about going there. Alec did not have a clue why we all look like nuts dressing up with customs and why were we dressing him up like a little devil!!! why would we???

We decorate our house every year but they hadn´t lived a halloween night for real before, so it was great. Nuria and her helpers in the complex did a great job. All the food was halloween theme. Pizzas had fake teeth on top, scary face drawing....and so on. They decorated the big room where the food was with cool drawings of ghosts, pumpkings... and everybody was wearing a custom. They have another clubhouse in the urbanization and they turned it into a haunted house. All the kids waited in line to go in there, Tracy was one of the grown ups hidden in the haunted house scaring the hell out of the kids. Nico was so scared that he would only go in there if I picked him up. I am posting a picture of us pretty scary. I will try to post the rest of them in picassa so you can check them.

A GREAT DAY OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS!

Last sunday we decided to spend the whole day out up in the mountains. We went to a nearby village called Alcoy. The area Font rotja or red fountain is only an hour away from the beach. That´s the name of the sanctuary in "el carrascal" de Alcoy (name of the mountains in that area).

Nicolas had a great time and so did Alec and us. We went with some friends and their kids (Cristina 7 years old, Carmela 3, Marta 3, Nicolas 4 and Alec 1) they all climbed up everywhere they could, and they did like most kids do, nonstop playing all day. Then we had a nice picnic at stone tables under the trees. Some of us took the kids hiking, they loved it. Nicolas wanted to see some wild pigs, deer or bears, but we had no luck.

Anyways we had a great day out.We´ll try something similar again, visiting other villages, mountains....etc