Christmas hampers, boxes and lotes!

Hi Bloggers,

Its nearly Christmas! Whoo Hoo! It really does feel like the festive season is upon me because I received our Christmas "lote" from Jose's Dad's business today. To you and I thats a Christmas hamper but there isn't any actual hamper. Its just a big cardboard box tightly packed full of goodies - a "lote".

Lote actually means: batch; lot; portion; share, or idiot.

Jose recieved our "portion" about three days ago but it has been sat in the boot of his car until now. These things are obviously not as important to him as they are to me. Maybe thats because he has been receiving his christmas "portion" for the last 12 years (oo er!). However, I have only ever recieved the following in the way of christmas hampers: 1. the spanish "lote" last year, and 2. a box full of lovely cheeses and chutneys from Fortnem and Masons the year before that from a client in London. So its all still quite new to me.

I have just opened up the box and here is what I found inside:

Jamon (obviously!), chorizo, cheese, red pepers roasted in olive oil, dates, salchichon (sausage), sobrasada (big suasage), walnuts, chocolate truffles, a box of chocolates, chocolate cookies, turon (typical desert from Alicante), marzipan shapes, chocolate turon, pina colada flavoured prailine, strange buns appearing to have hailed from a monestry, turon cake, almonds, "christmas buns" which don't seem at all christmassey to me, bottle of sweet white wine, bottle of normal white wine, two bottles of red wine, bottle of cava, bottle of vintage cava, bottle of chivas regal whiskey, bottle of gran reserva brandy.

Pretty good hey?! But, to me not at all christmassey. Where are the mince pies, the proper christmas pudding, the brandy sauce, the packets of sage and onion stuffing and bisto gravy, brussel sprouts (which I cooked last night by the way to warm Jose up to a week in the UK over christmas)?

Christmas is different in different countries (obviously) and until you live abroad you don't really realise how much you miss your own traditions. I don't miss seeing christmas cards being sold in August and shops totally decked out by October .........but I do miss seeing christmas trees with tacky tinsel everywhere. I do miss seeing pissed up youths and old people alike swaying through town with a santa hat on. In fact I miss santa! He doesn't really feature here. He is around but saying you are going to see santa is kind of like saying you are going to be your three year old a mobile phone. You are a modernist gone mad. Over here its the three kings that bring the presents - on the 6th of January! Personally I think this is rubbish for the kids because they have two weeks of school and then get their presents the weekend before they start back at school! My future kids are going to get there presents on Christmas day - regardless of what my spanish family thinks or says. They can have a few more when the old kings come. What do Kings ever give the people anyway - tourism?!

There is no real set christmas dinner here as far as I can see. In Britain you could bet your house, car and entire savings account on the fact that 80% of Britain are eating certain things (the other 20% percent are abroad). Thank God we are going up to Navarra for christmas (at Jose's aunty's) because here in Catalunya the tradition is a soup. A soup for crying out loud! I am not eating soup on Christmas day unless it is followed by all the trimings! I have no idea what will be served in Navarra .....but they are all big people up there so it must be more than soup. Musn't it?

Another thing I miss is seeing Christmas cards everywhere - which used to actually wind me up. Here no one sends them! I do, and the recipients all smile and laugh and look at each other and say "oh yeah she's English, she sends cards." They don't send them back though. Eusebio, our usher, actually had last year's Christmas card from us up on his shelves in the lounge until about August of this year - it being so special and all!

I have been receiving Christmas cards from English friends - thank you for those! But I must say the amount reaching me out here is definitely less than when I lived in London. You see I am out of the rounds of every Tom Dick and Harry at work sending you one. Also it is evident that some friends just don't know where the post office is - you know who you are!

We were supposed to be going skiing this weekend but due to global warming there is not enough snow! Bummer. Jose thinks that in a few years we might not even be able to ski in Spain, not before Christmas anyway. To console ourselves fro not being able to go skiing we are going to the farm to do a bit of moutnain biking and veggie picking. I'm hopeing for artichokes, oranges and lemons and anything else that is still growing. I may well take some photos and do a blog next week if the pickings are good.

Have a lovely weekend

S xx