Update 2: Family in Logrono for Christmas!

On December 23rd, the seven of us made it to Logrono in the afternoon to all go to the grocery store together to buy what we would need for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals in Spain. My family thought it was crazy how the the people pulled around little mini carts in the grocery store. Ben and I have become accustomed to them so it was funny to see how new people laughed as we had done right away. The mini grocery carts remind me of a wash bucket that you use to clean your floors but on wheels and having holes in them. They are very small so you always have to pull a couple around in order to fit all your groceries.

For Christmas Eve, Ben and I decided to venture once again in making the turkey, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, a fabulous salad and vegetables meal like we had once before for Thanksgiving Day here in Spain and sort of failed at it then. This time though, the meal was a success! Like on Thanksgiving Day our power went out again but this time we were prepared and everything was finished all together. Ben and I treated my family to traditional Christmas treats. In Spain they have many different Christmas goodies that are excellent at Christmas time. My family liked them so much that they all packed a few away to bring back to share with people in the US. I also was able to show my family the greatest candy that I have ever had and they all fell in love with it too. I have never liked candy so much as I do here in Spain. There are candy stores everywhere in my city and they seem to always be busy all of the time with children and even adults. We took my family out for the traditional churros and chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. They were great!

My mom, dad and I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful cathedral near our apartment and we also went again on Christmas Day with everybody. It was interesting both times because it was all in Spanish! Everybody could kind of understand at least the traditional Christmas tunes they played during the masses.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent relaxing with the family catching up in our apartment. It was a great time being able to have all 7 people together staying in our apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed great and it was really nice to be able to spend all the time together. We also spent the days here wandering and exploring the city.

Here are some photos of the places in Logrono we visited.

Here is "a" for Abby!

Here is my mom, Rob and I at the RiojaForum. The RiojaForum is a concert hall and also used as a building for where the Congress of La Rioja meets.

Cities in Spain are known for the traditional 'tapas' or appetizers. It was exciting going out for tapas with my family during the Christmas time. Most Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights families in Spain go out to many different bars and eat small appetizer foods together with a glass of wine or beer. It is a fun time to wander the streets and visit with people. Here we are above in one of Ben and my favorite bars in Logrono to visit for tapas. It was especially exciting during the Christmas time since there were many small local bands playing Christmas tunes marching through the streets and stopping to play outside for the crowd. It really made it feel like Christmas even though there wasn't any snow or cold weather! During Christmas they also had two different little outside markets to buy handmade goods from people that came here from all over the world. We all bought a few gifts from there to remember the markets.

After Christmas Day my family took two more day trips to the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza. They are both cities within 2 hours away from Logrono by bus. I will update you later on the excursions of both those cities. Goodbye for now!