Spanish Christmas

For Christmas Eve, we all dressed up fancy and went to the church for our Christmas dinner. The doors opened at 9:00 pm, and before we ate, there was a service with some singing and preaching. They had asked me to lead the Christmas carols with Mako, a Japanese missionary.

We sang Joy to the World, What Child is This? and Silent Night. There we were, in front of all these people!

I don't usually get nervous for things like this, but after we were done, my face was red for practically the entire dinner. The picture of us at the piano was posed after the fact, so you don't see the microphones, but they had the volume up really high, and the acoustics in that room were really echo-y, so it was impossible to escape the knowledge that everyone was listening to me.

After our singing, Mako's husband, Pedro, preached a great message.

Dinner was DELICIOUS. I have to say without reservation that it was the best Christmas dinner I have ever tasted! First there were the appetizers: Spanish jamón serrano, lomo, and chorizo, plus shrimp, deviled eggs filled with a tuna-based filling, and bread.

Then came the yummiest seafood soup! Ah! It made me wish the camera could reproduce tastes.

I wanted more soup when I had finished mine, but it was already gone. Then came our next plate: roast beef with vegetables. This doesn't look as good as it tasted, but everything, especially the vegetables, was fantastic.

I didn't get a picture of our dessert, but it was a typical Spanish dessert called natillas, with a great variety of traditional Christmas sweets to choose from as well.

After dinner, the girls started being crazy...

R, E, and A2

U, C, D, and Y

Q, U, C, D, and Y

C and U

D, Y, U, and C

A after our gift exchange back in the house, with a little extra lipstick...

I received a lovely red tam (hat) from my secret pal, who turned out to be Q. I gave my secret pal (C) a scarf and two facial creams that she likes.