Dear Caminoheads,
Friday… I need to review the Bureau Chiefs schedule to bring the team back to writing!!! But in the meantime we get that sorted, let me share with you the last part of this email I sent to Ron and Anne last year and while I have no photos to post of those times, I posted a pict of the beach… that may give you an idea of “the weather & the landscape” when and where all of this was happening…
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The pork… the pork was the second plate… Usually, my grandfather from my mother side, Italian descendant, used to be in charge of cutting the animal. This was always done in the “house” kitchen, sort of like a ritual… but we knew that my grandfather, as he was cutting the animal, would eat the kidneys or the “brain”, and obviously we kids found that horrible! He also would save the head to eat later, when we kids were not looking!
My brother, my cousin and I used to fight for the ribs (until I discovered how delicious the skin was, super well toasted and crunchy, seasoned with the “adobo”… by then, I let the boys fight for the ribs!)
We would continue the meal with a long break. For us, the meal would start at 10 PM as my family used to have businesses in this beach and were opened until just a bit before. So by now, after the pork, someone may look at the watch and exclaim: “15 para las 12” (15 to midnight!) and the table would be quickly cleaned up, rushed trips to the fridge (the one that only would be plugged in in Christmas) for the super cold cider, put the TV on, and we would count until 12. Then, a cheerful cheers, and when we were kids, there was always a moment of distraction so someone would say “I think there is someone at the front door, and it would be a red bag from Papa Noel with presents. There were for everybody, even if the present would be a deodorant! or a bar of soap!
Then, it was time for the dessert, invariably, in every Christmas or New Year, there would be “Ensalada de Frutas”, usually to feed 25 people at least (some families used to have a “plastic bucket” only for the fruits salad.
By then, in this beach where we used to spend Christmas, friends would come to greet, or we would go others house to greet too, so it was the time for the sweets, the turrones, the pan dulce, the fruits with chocolate, and my grandfather would sit with his big bag of walnuts and his Christmas hammer (that I have with me!) to break the nueces and eat easily 3 kilos by himself from the 24 Dec to 06Jan! “Solo para las fiestas!” (Only for the holidays) he used to say when someone would complain to him that it was a lot. The following day
The night would end by 3 in the morning, and the following day would find the patio taken over by the empty bottles of cider… and would find us with mate and pan dulce, and somehow, within hours, we were all ready to feast again!
After my grandparents died, and after we all married and the need to share holidays with other relatives came, these gatherings were lost but I have great memories of those days.
Feasts of love and love those feasts,
Cris
You are lucky to have Christmas in the Sun only 7c here but sunny!
Dear Kevan,
Yes!!! isn’t that odd? In 2018 it was the first and only time I spent Christmas in the north hemisphere. I met in London with my best friend -who is Argentinian but lives near Montreal- and we had Christmas Eve dinner in the airbnb we rented in Highgate, and then went walking to midnight mass to St. Joseph’s, just a few blocks away. I told my friend that it was drizzling, and he had a belly laugh… it was just the cold almost snowy air… I remember wearing my friend’s gloves and even had my coat hat on and a woolen scarf, and still was freezing.
Yet, we had a lovely time, and get to know London in Christmas season 🙂
Stay warm! Much love to you!!!
Cris
Yes it is cool in England but doesn’t really get very cold I think that the lowest temperature ever recorded in London is -9c and obviously exceptional but in Helsinki yesterday it was -12 and that is not uncommon.With Europe due to the Gulf Stream the west tends to have, relatively speaking,mild winters but cool summers and the east very cold winters and warm summers.I think that we are a similar latitude in the north to Ushuaia in the south with similar winter temperatures but warmer summers than Ushuaia as whenever I look at Ushuaia it always stuff like 14 even in the middle of it’s summer but it never looks too cold in winter things like 2 and 3.