It’s been a lovely day so far . . .

In Spain just about everything closes down at about 5-6 pm on Christmas Eve, including bars and restaurants. Tonight is the traditional family meal, sometimes followed by midnight mass (and sometimes presents, though those are usually saved for Los Reyes – on January 5th).

My Christmas Eve morning started off a bit shaky as I’d woken up at 4 am and just couldn’t get back to sleep, and then it was time to get up and go to yoga. Which I did in spite of feeling like total crap (cos I knew I’d feel better afterwards – and I did 🙂 ). Nog met me at the gym afterwards and we did some last minute food shopping. A few hours later we went out for a walk and ran into my friend Maria Paz, who runs Bar Campanario (one of our two favourite locals), and she said we should stop by after our Christmas lunch tomorrow. Meanwhile, we had been invited to our friend Eric’s place for a ‘Christmas orphan’s’ lunch, but decided we’d prefer to stop by later on for an after-lunch copita. And so we told Maria Paz we’d pick her up on the way to Eric’s . . .

Then off to find a pair of pretty red earrings for Maria Paz (she’d said that tomorrow we should all wear red, but she didn’t have any red earrings) and I also had to pick up a last minute gift for Nog (made him wait on the corner while I went and bought the whatsit).

Then back to Campanario for a Christmas drink … and to give Maria Paz the red earrings for tomorrow. Found them at the Christmas market – very pretty! After that we wandered over to our other favourite local ay Mari Cruz! because we’d seen Carlos (the manager) earlier and he said that we just had to stop by . . .

So had another Christmas drink or two there, though we also had a snack . . . and now we’re at home listening to the Johnny Cash CD that Steve (aka Blues Shark) gave me and we’re roasting some very garlicky potatoes for our Christmas Eve dinner. Nog is just cleaning up the kitchen now, so I can go back in soon and mess it all up again. Along with the roasted spuds we’ll be having grilled salmon steak in a jamón & cava sauce, with some steamed broccoli (Nog can’t stand sprouts and we didn’t get to the Corte Inglés supermarket that always has fresh green asparagus . . .)

Meanwhile, sipping some cava here and looking at the wee tree and feeling pretty good. And also thinking about all my friends and I’m hoping everyone is feeling cosy and loved . .

Merry Christmas everybody