Three Wise Men

In view of the coming of the Three Wise Men (Jan 6th), here we have our Three Wise Guys you might say. Which brings me to my first point: in Spain, Christmas is not about presents, it's about the birth of Jesus....but Epiphany, now that's where the presents are at!!! All the little kids in Spain write letters to the Wise Men asking for toys and so you can imagine the excitement they feel knowing that on Friday they will receive heaps of gifts!!

One day we made an awesome Colombian "Frijoles" Dish that I just had to commemorate on the blog. It came out so tasty!

Another day we went walking to the Plaza Mayor to see the Christmas Outdoor Market. The kids loved the guy making the enormous balloons and he even obliged us with a special picture of the kids in the balloon!

Above are an assortment of pictures from this last week :) And below is the famous restaurant "El Botin" which is the world's oldest restaurant (you can see the Guiness Book of World Records Certificate from the window). It is located just off of one of the corners of the plaza mayor. The place has been open for business since 1725!!!

On Thursday night we actually got to go out (just the adults!!). You might say we pulled a fast one on all the five kids, because we put them all to bed nice and early (8:30pm) and then the babysitter came over at 9pm when they were fast asleep and we quickly slipped out! (of course, crossing our fingers that this would work, because if the kids woke up unexpectedly to find an unforeseen babysitter this could have been a big problema!). Luckily we had purposefully worn them out that day and they passed out like rocks.

I wish I could say that we were all full of energy and ready for a long night out on the town, but when you're managing 5 kids ages 5 and under, energy is a commodity that's rather spare! Still, we had a great time at some tapas bars (the tapas were AMAZING) and it was really fun to experience the Spanish nightlife, which as you all may know, is something that Spain is known for. I asked a Spaniard in our group specifically about that because it seemed to me that the streets were packed with people going out (sure didn't seem like a recession in Spain!) and he said that Spaniards would rather not spend on clothes, vacations and other stuff just so they have enough money to still go out :) haha..



So here in the picture above is Ana Maria and Pablo, Fede, me, Miguel, Valentina and Patricia. We ordered something very typical in Madrid which is called "Huevos Rotos" (Broken eggs), and it's basically a dish with homemade potato chips, fried eggs and ham on top! so bizarre but very yummy!!

We also had a great picnic at Retiro last week with our friends Scott and Leah (who you may remember from our Thanksgiving Celebration). Leah is just a month away from giving birth and we are super excited!! The weather continues to be delightful.

And finally, I just had to include this pic of us at the Planetarium, not because of its photographic quality but because Francisco looks so darn cute pre-haircut. Fede says that he looked like one of the Three Stooges with his mushroom hair (so true!!) and I just found it darling...of course he looks terrific with his buzz cut too.

Ok, next post is all about the Manzanares River Outing a.k.a. Madrid's best kept secret.

cheers to everyone,

The Martinez Family