back to the market …

. . . for some last minute prezzies

This weekend (January 5th) is Los Reyes Magos, which is traditionally the day that gifts are exchanged in Spain. As I still had a couple of people to get a little something for I popped back to the Christmas Market this afternoon and bought two very pretty wooden boxes with mosaic lids (blue with yellow stars - similar to the pic above but without the black outlining and ‘face’).

And so I’ve updated the Christmas market post, adding a photo of Fernando wrapping up one of my boxes and posting his website link. There are also a couple of new pics there showing the other side of the Belén and the big tree in front of city hall at night.  Check them out . . .

Christmas Market update

christmas open house! (2007)

For anyone who would like to drop by. . .

Nog & I will be out mid-late afternoon, having lunch at Casa Robles and then stopping by our friend Eric’s place for a drink, but other than that it’ll be a quiet day at home (famous last words - last time we stopped by Eric’s for a drink we ended up lurching home around 6am!). We were actually invited to Eric’s ‘Christmas orphan’s’ lunch out on his huge rooftop terrace, but somehow we feel more like a quiet meal together this year, and then joining in on the party ‘ambientation’ later, picking up our friend Maria Paz on the way, who will be working.

Anyhow, all the puters will be on in case anyone wants to say hello by IM or Skype:

Yahoo IM - azaharh2g2
Skype - azahar.sevilla

And look! Matt has made it possible to snow in Sevilla! 

 

christmas eve

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

 

 

attack of the sprouts!

Click on the thumbnail and start splatting!

Defend your Christmas dinner!
(even if you quite like sprouts it’s still a fun game)

from the casa az christmas archives

christmas market

Went to the Christmas market this afternoon.

We were quite lucky because it was supposed to be raining today (and also for the next 3-4 days) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant day, just a bit cloudy and even sometimes sunny.

I was very pleased to see our friend Norberto there. We met him one magical night when our friend zoomer was visiting and later I got some nice pics of Norberto in his workshop with the façade nicely redone.

To be honest, most of the stalls at the market had a lot of the same-old rather useless hippy-dippy ‘artesan’ stuff, but there were a few I rather liked. I am presently coveting one of Norberto’s serigraphs, especially one with the new matte silver frames he has started using. And I would also love to have one of the carved wooden book lamps. But I know where to find both of these guys should I ever have some extra cashola and feel like treating myself.

Anyhow, here are some photos taken during today’s visit to the Christmas market. It really was a pleasant way to spend the early afternoon. On the way home we stopped off at Fnac and bought a dvd of The Jungle Book … so now off to make a snack, open some wine and curl up on the sofa with Nog to watch it. I’m now ‘on holiday’ until next Thursday and plan on enjoying every minute of it.

[update: returned to the market here]

Click below to check out the photos . . .

 

o christmas tree (with lights)

Isn’t it pretty?

Last night Nog & I were out for our usual Wednesday night tapas and on the way home we passed an electrical shop that had these lights in the window and we thought they’d be perfect for our new wicker tree. So this morning Nog picked them up on his way home from a class, which was a good thing because I probably would have decided they were too expensive (they cost as much as the tree did!) but now that they are up I think they’re worth it.

It’s hard to make out but there is gold mesh along the cord that has little red metallic leaves and flowers dangling from it, as well as little clear ‘crystal’ hearts. And this afternoon while I was out doing a bit of Christmas shopping I found a wee wooden star painted red and gold to put on top. Serendipitous or what?

Ooooh, starting to feel a bit Christmassy now . . .

 

gibraltar at last!

The loot.

The trip . . .

gibraltar, here I come?

Will it be third time lucky???

As I mentioned on the travelling plans post, my friend Carmen has very generously offered to drive me to Gibraltar to buy underwear at Marks & Spencer, but the date has been moved up to this Saturday instead of the 22nd. And really, not a moment too soon given the very sad and sorry state of my knickers. Of course given my bad luck with having tried to get to this place twice in the past (mentioned here and here) I probably won’t believe it until I’m actually through passport control and walking through the M&S front doors on Saturday morning.

Anyhow, I’m getting quite excited and also plan to stock up on mince pies if they have any. And maybe a sweater or two. Oooh, and some socks. . .

elf or scrooge?

My friend Dawn sent me an email this morning in which she had made a total elf of herself, and so the gang at casa az has done likewise (click on the pic to check out just how well us elves can boogie on down - and make sure you have the speakers turned on).

Elf Yourself is brought to you by Office Max . . . and for those of you who may not be feeling particularly festive there is also a Scrooge Yourself version.

They may take awhile to load, so be patient …

o christmas tree

It’s our new little wicker Christmas tree!

I also have a little cardboard cutout Victorian tree, but this new tree is quite a bit bigger and perhaps with some eensy lights and a bit of tinsel (though it does have silver sparkles all over it already) it could end up looking rather festive.

You see, for years I’ve never been able to have a proper Christmas tree because of the cats. Instead I’ve put little white fairy lights around the balcony doors, put out my cardboard tree on the table and hung up a few bobbles here and there. But this year Nog & I decided we would look for some sort of Christmas tree that would be ‘cat proof’ and I think this one might work out quite nicely. It’s about 50cm tall and there is space on the wee table to put a gifty or two on Christmas eve, yet there is nothing dangly and tempting to interest the cats. I actually like it as it is, but Nog thinks it needs a bit of tarting up, so we’ll see what we can find.

So … just back from the first Sunday Shopping Sunday in December (in Spain Sunday shopping is only allowed in December and one Sunday each when winter and summer sales begin) . AND IT WERE HELL. All the stores had their heating turned up to maximum even though it was a balmy 18ºC outside, and then there were multitudes of screaming kidlets everywhere . . . gaaaaaaah!!! So after finding the tree and doing a bit of other basic shopping we stopped in at Ay Maricrú! for some much needed refreshment before heading home.

For those of you who don’t know about the issues concerning cats and Christmas trees, check out CUTE with Christmas.