Feliz Navidad!
With all the snow back home I am sure it is feeling a lot like Christmas!  We have no snow here but lots of rain instead.  The weather is constantly changing from day to day and from hour to hour.  This past Sunday Dave and I ran near the beach in shorts--- with the sun beating down on us.  It was a beautiful day! However, tonight it is chilly outside with lightning and pouring rain.  The forecast looks promising though with Sunday back to normal---sunny and in the 60's.  We do not have a heating system in our home so the inside of our house can get quite chilly.  We did purchase electric heaters for all our bedrooms to use at night. 

We are having fun learning about Spanish traditions at Christmas time.  Here is what I have learned from my Spanish friends......On Christmas Eve families get together and share in one of the most important meals of the year.  Fish, lamb and other meats are served as well as the traditonal turron and marzipan desserts.  It is a big celebration in honor of  Christ's birth and it can go on all night long. Many people attend midnight mass as a large majority of the people in Spain are Catholic.  However, Christmas day is one of the quietest days of the year.  No stores are open and gifts are not usually given or exchanged until January 6th.  January 6th is called "Los Reyes Magos," which means Three Kings Day.  This is the day when children awake to find three presents from the Three Kings.  The Three Kings are like Santa Clause in the States.  Children write letters to the Three Kings just like Americans write to Santa Clause.  The Three Kings are Gaspar, Melchoir and Balthazar. Gaspar brings Frankincense and is King of Sheba.  Melchoir brings Gold and is King of Arabia.  Balthazar brings myrrh and is king of Tarse and Egypt.  Most towns have what is called a belen, a nativity display.  We are going to visit a town this week to see a belen.  I have been told that they can be quite elaborate and big in size.  Not only do they have the stable scene but a village scene as well.  They have the entire village to show that life was happening normally as Jesus was born.  On January 5th there are big parades and fiestas celebrating Three Kings day.  The Three Kings are in the parade for all the kids to see.  We are planning to attend the Three Kings parade in Malaga on January 5th.  It should be fun and  interesting!  All towns also have christmas light displays although almost no one decorates their own homes with outside lights.  I will post photos of what we actually see  in a few weeks.


Tonight we were so excited because our friends, The Rosner's, were suppose to be arriving here.  However, their flight was cancelled and they will have to wait until December 24th to leave.  Does this sound familiar?  The same thing happened to us on our first attempt here.  Let's pray the rest of their trip goes smoothly.  The one positive outcome of their delay is that they will get to ring in the new year with us!  They will be staying longer, until January 3rd.  Hooray!

I have posted photos from our last trip to England and Paris.  We had a great time even though it was bitter cold in London. We visited the usual tourist sites in London and went to see the play "Oliver Twist".  The younger boys really enjoyed the show as it was the first live production they have seen.  We then took a train to the city of Oxford to see Christ's Church.  Christ's Church is where some scenes from The Harry Potter films were shot.  We saw the dining hall and the stairway.   Oxford is a beautiful town full of many universities.  We then spent one amazing night in Thornbury Castle, near the town of Gloucester.  This was defintely the highlight of our trip.  All our kids loved it and wanted to stay longer at the castle! It was better than any Disney castle, this was the real thing!  We had a lot of funny moments at the castle.  Our meals were very formal with the waitress placing our napkins for us etc.. At our first dinner after our waitress left our table Alec said in an irritating voice..."Can I take this thing off my lap now."There were many other funny occurences but not enough time or space to share them here.
We also visited Warwick Castle which is furnished and has lots of wax figures.  We toured the grimy castle dungeon where people were in costume and looked gruesome and scary. Alec kept a tight hold of my hand but loved every bit of it.

From Oxford we took the eurotrain through the Channel to Paris, France. The channel is a tunnel under the water that connects England to France.  It was night when we took the train so we could not even tell when we went through the water tunnel.  I would take a train over flying any day!  Except they are expensive with six travelers. 
In Paris we visited Dave's cousin, Sarah.  We really enjoyed seeing her and having our own tour guide!  The kids loved seeing her as well.  She has been living in Paris the last four years so she knows her way around and can speak the language, which was a big help and relief.  Dave and I kept saying Hola and Gracias forgetting we were in France!  We all went up in the Eiffel tower and it was better than I had anticipated..  It is so massive and at night it is lit up with so many lights---it really is a site to see!.  The kids really liked the Eiffel tower and already want to see it again.  We also vistied the Louvre museum and saw the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci.  Joshua was so excited to see this painting and I was not sure why?  After he saw it he said, "I thought the Mona Lisa was going to be a massive painting but it was so tiny."  We had a good laugh over that comment.  Oh well, at least we can all say we have seen "The Mona Lisa", whoopee!
Our last day in Paris was spent browsing  the souvenir shops--- the kids loved this.


We would love to visit England and France in the Spring when the trees are in bloom and we are not freezing!  Overall the kids are getting much better at traveling with less complaining, praise the Lord!
Ethan really liked England --- guess why?  The people spoke English!

I will update you on church happenings on the next blog. The coffee shop is now open. I don't have any photos of it yet though.

I can't seem to get the spell check to work correctly so forgive any misspellings.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray that you will have much to rejoice about in the New Year!


We hope you celebrate Christ's birth with excitement, joy and thanksgiving---as it should be!


Until next time,

Feliz Navidad!

Love,
The Hoeft's