Happy New Year everyone!! Monkey pointed out that it is a new decade!! That kinda makes me feel old, even though I'm not. My Christmas break has been good. On Christmas I gave my gifts to the family (I had bought the gifts the weekend before Christmas and put them under the tree, and my family thought it was a waste of space and kind of annoying to have presents on the living room floor). I got my host dad sick sunglasses that have the shape of the american flag and a bag of betty crocker cookie mix; i got my host mom a pair of rubber cleaning gloves that are black and on the top they have gold painted in the shape of lace and on the ring finger a big diamond ring (she thought it was a hair tie) and a picture of me and my three sisters; my oldest sister Eli I got a scarf and gloves (she was excited about the gloves cause she didnt have any); I gave Leti some bath stuff from Lush (they have a Lush here! I thought that was only a Portland thing but I guess not); and to Maria I gave a cup that you can draw on and if you put it in the oven the drawing is permanent, but if you dont then you can keep changing it. Then, us kids got presents from "el niño jesus" which had been placed under the Bethleham scene earlier that morning (we got up around 11am – which is weird because on Christmas everyone gets up early, and when I was 12, like Maria, I made everyone get up around 8am). I got a pair of earrings and a necklace that were both from Rome! My host mom had gone a couple of weekends earlier and had bought the presents there. Christmas Eve we ate dinner at the grandparents house, and then on Christmas day we had lunch at our house. It was with the same people just in a different house.

Then New Years we went to the grandparents house and had dinner. Right before midnight you watch on tv a famous cathedral count down to the new year; every four seconds the ring a bell and you eat a grape. After eating your 12th grape it is the new year and you get up and congratulate everyone. You can't really talk between bells because you are eating, so you don't count down. Then, in Spain it is a tradition to go out all night and, before heading home for bed, get breakfast traditionally of churros and chocolate. I went out later with a couple of friends to a discoteca. I didn't make it until breakfast, I went home around 6am, and slept. That day though we had family over to our house to eat lunch (lunch starts at 2 or 3 always) and so I didn't sleep all day.

The 6th of January was Reyes. It is basically like every other countries Christmas. You go to sleep on the 5th (there's not a big dinner or anything) and while you are sleeping three magic kings (los reyes magos) come (their names are Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltazar) and leave presents at your doorstep. Then when you wake up magically there are a bunch of presents at your doorstep. This tradition is unique to Spain and is not celebrated in other European countries. So the morning of the 6th my sister Maria woke me up at 9am (equivalent to an American 8am) and we went to the living room to open presents. There were lots of presents! I got a dress, a scarf, earrings, leggings, a jacket and a purse!! All the clothes are very Spanishy. Then we went to the grandparents to have lunch. When everyone was there the first thing we did was open presents, then we ate and went home. I love celebrates los Reyes Magos because while all my friends from home are in school, I have an extra week of vacation!

Hope everyone is well and had a great holiday season!! I miss you all!