I’ve been busy this last week getting ready for a Christmas party and also making and sending off cards. I have always preferred receiving cards to presents at Christmas but one unexpected result of moving to another country is that you don’t get so many lovely little envelopes dropping through the front door. People here don’t have this custom at all so if you are someone who hates the chore then this is a great place to live! But for me it is one of my favourite parts of Christmas.
I tried to do it all early this year, making my own cards and printing out sheets of labels with my address to cunningly stick on the back. Desperate measures!
The first two that arrived here were both pictures of hares – next year is the Chinese year of the Rabbit so perhaps this is the connection. I don’t know if it is a general trend or just a coincidence.
This is my second Christmas here (xmas 2009 see here) and I found to my surprise that I was feeling a little nostalgic for homey things. All those years of wanting to escape the Christmas pressure and yet here I am after such a short time finding that I want a Christmas tree and crackers.
So I invited a few English speaking friends with their Catalan partners to come and have dinner and have a Fusion Christmas party. We put together ideas of what we like to do at Christmas and ended up with a lovely evening last night with songs like the Twelve Days of Christmas and El Noi de la Mare. There is a story that this Catalan song was the last one played by Segovia before his death, the music was on his music stand.
We had a passebre, beat presents out of the Tió (as you see we have the most basic Tió possible, a log with a blanket over it which Duna decided was her best friend), ate a vegetarian roast dinner with Christmas pudding and custard, pulled crackers, drank Cava and were too full to eat a homemade Christmas cake, in true Christmas tradition. I felt the Catalan male partners were a bit bemused by it all (and especially by the typed up timetable of events!!! very unmediterranean) but the female party planners were very happy with how it all went.
Preparing the room for the party was almost as good as the event itself. I found rolls and rolls of beautiful silky fabric from the old days of the textile factory and made drapes and decorations to warm the room.
This is so different to my experience this year. the hotel has about 5 Christmas trees with mock presents underneath, and decorations up as well of course. We have hosted our final Christmas Party (80 people) before the big day and now have gone to the other extreme, of no people in the hotel – no travelling, too much snow and so on. The colours of the world right now are grey and white, so your world of colours is much appreciated. I’m hoping I will get the christmas dinner treatment on The Day because I’m working and plan to cajole one of the chefs to put together a plate of food for me – I’m babysitting the hotel Christmas night and Boxing Day as it is closed for accommodation but still needs someone there to watch over it, so will have peace and quiet, a big room, good heating, a mock-fire to sit in front of, a huge TV, heated indoor swimming pool, sauna – and all for me! Diana
Hi Diana
I hope you have a lovely peaceful time. It sounds so nice I almost want to jump on a plane (are there still planes to the UK?) and come and read a book with you in the hotel room, all cosy and warm. lots of love Kate x