One of the best-loved Christmas traditions in Spanish-speaking countries is the pesebre. Pesebres are nativity scenes, but they're much more detailed than the crèches that we set up in Canada. Many of them have a background made of paper or cloth, and have landscapes made of moss and stones and twigs. Each one is not just a nativity scene, but a perfect little world. Belén showed me her favourite one, where all the little models are wearing traditional Mallorcan clothes. After that all I wanted to do was go look for pesebres. Each one is different, but I especially liked the ones with the sheep and donkeys. I pretended that I could make myself super-small and go play with them. Here's a video of another pesebre. Which part of it do you like best?
I could have spent the whole day just learning about pesebres, but Belén had friends coming over for a Christmas lunch. I helped Bé decorate a little tabletop Christmas tree, and then set the cutlery and folded the napkins while she arranged the rest of the table.
 |
| A typical pesebre. My favourite part was the windmill. |
 |
| This tree is just my size! |
 |
| Christmas Eve lunch. |
I knew that Santa Claus doesn't make many stops in Mallorca. Instead, the Three Kings bring presents for everyone on January 6th. I hadn't written a letter to Santa this year, so I was surprised when Belén showed me two tiny stockings.
"Where are those from?", I asked. You'll never believe this, but it turned out that Flat Sally stayed with Belén too! A friend of theirs in Jerusalem had made a tiny stocking for each of them, but Flat Sally had left her stocking behind to keep Bé's stocking company. I didn't think Santa would bother to visit Mallorca just for me; but just in case, I hung the little green stocking up for me and the little blue stocking up for Noa. There on the Christmas tree, the two stockings were still keeping each other company.
In the morning, the tiny stockings were bulging. Santa had come after all! A mysterious piece of string poking out of the top of Noa's stocking turned out to be the tail of a catnip mouse. In my own stocking was a miniature Spanish-English dictionary, some Mexican coins, a flashlight for reading in my envelope, and of course different candies. Under the tree was another present: a game of Uno!
By now it was time to pack up my envelope, cuddle against Noa one last time, hug Belén's dad, and say goodbye to Mallorca. First we boarded a short-haul plane to Madrid. Bé and I had a window seat, so I could make a video of our takeoff. (It was SO much more comfortable to be in a seat with somebody to talk to than all by lonesome inside a dark envelope.) We watched the lights of Palma disappear behind us, until there was nothing under the airplane's wings but the inky blackness of the Mediterranean Sea. Soon we could see the lights of Spain up ahead, and after only an hour and a half our plane touched down at Madrid. Once we landed, it was hard to see much, but you might like this video anyway.
Now, after only a week in Spain, I'm on my way back across the Atlantic. It used to take the old sailors three months to sail from Spain to Mexico - but Bé and I will be in Mexico tomorrow!
love,
Katie
|
No comments:
Post a Comment