Three Kings Festivities!

Want to know something funny? When I was in the 4th grade I did a project on Christmas in Spain, well not Christmas exactly, but Three Kings Day as that is what is celebrated here. At the time I was only imagining what it could actually be like. Who could have possibly known that seven years later (jeez that sounds like a lot) I would be living the holiday first hand!?

So Emma, two of her friends and I got into the holiday spirit by taking the train to Barcelona to see the Three Kings parade together. This parade was pretty hardcore if I do say so myself. Almost like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was still pretty impressive! 

There were lots of lights, dancers, floats, and of course candy. Each King (Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar) had his own float. Just like in the U.S. if a child was naughty during the year they are given coal, so there was even a float of miners just for a reminder! I wish I had decent pictures of the parade, but all I have is a picture of a few blurry dancers, and one of a bald guys head. Sorry to disappoint!

After the parade we took the train back to Castelldefels and spent the rest of the night out with Emma's friends. We even went out to eat at a restaurant of food from Istanbul. All we had was wraps so I'm not sure if that counts, but the menus were in the language of Istanbul so I'm gonna go ahead and say it does count. 

After hanging out a bit longer in the middle of town, we finally headed back home. Once inside I was told to bring one of my shoes to the sliding door in the living room, because that is where the Kings would come in, and that is how they would know to leave me presents. So I brought my red Ked sneaker into the living room and set it alongside the others and called it a night, patiently waiting for the Kings to come and work their magic.

The next day...

We woke up at around 10 and all walked into the living room together. There we found clusters of presents with each of our shoes laying on our cluster. Everybody opened their presents together, tried on their new clothes, and said the sincerest of thank yous and, although it wasn't exactly the All American Christmas, it was a cute little holiday morning that I will always remember! 

After gathering all our loot from the living room and finding places for everything in our rooms we all got ready to go to a family friends house for a Three Kings Day meal. When we got there we found the table all set up, as usual. After the arrival of some more friends we sat down to the customary tapas. After filling up on some of those we moved on to the main course which was, carne (meat). 

Its funny, here food is either called fish or meat, and when its meat they never specify what kind of meat it is. So here I was getting all excited because we were having meat. In my experience so far meat meant either chicken or beef, so I wouldn't have to choke down some fish smiling all the while pretending to like it, however as fate would have it there was a new type of meat thrown into the mix, lamb. Now this was my first time having lamb EVER and I am still not sure if I like it or not, but I kept my game face on the whole time saying how much I loved the food, regardless of how I actually felt.

After the lamb we had not one, not two, but three courses of dessert. The first was a fruit platter with chocolate fondue. The second was the customary Three Kings Cake. Cooked within the cake was a king figurine, and a bean. Whoever's piece of cake contained the king got to wear the paper crown that came with the cake for the rest of the meal, while whoever got the bean had to pay for the cake. We had two of these cakes, one just the usual, and one with a massive whipped cream filling. 

Normal Three Kings Cake. I couldn't find a picture of the cream
filled cake, but just imagine this one with a solid 3 inches of whipped cream inbetween.

As luck would have it one of the family friends got the king figurine in the first cake and Emma got it in the second. Oddly enough, no one got the bean in either cake so I guess the host was stuck with paying for the cake! The third course of dessert was coffee and chocolate truffles. I skipped this course since I was stuffed to the rim already!

After all the plates were cleared and goodbyes were said we went to the house of another family friend to see the new toys of their four year old son and play along with all of his new games. After doing that for awhile we headed to the mall with the intention of seeing a movie (this would be our third time to the movie theatre over this vacation, we go a lot!) however we didn't check the schedule ahead of time so the movie we wanted to see had already started. 

However we didn't waste this trip to the mall. Instead we spent it searching for a cord for my iPod, since my old one broke, and also looking for a case for Ana's new phone. Luckily we were able to find both! Then we headed back home and here we are sitting on the couch watching some random movie on TV and just taking in our perfect little holiday. 

Thank you Felez - Roldan family for making this Three Kings Day special and a holiday I will never forget!

Family Photo #1

Family Photo #2