Early January 2014

Drinks!

Food!

 Happy New Year!  The ward celebrated with a party, and how could we pass up a party?

Friends!

and Goodnight!

Of course Madrid was still celebrating Christmas on New Year's.  The season goes until January 6th, the Day of the Kings.  The kings are said to bring gifts to local children just as they brought gifts to the Christ Child long ago.  The week before there are parades in local communities, with floats carrying the kings, and people throwing candy to the children, much like Santa Claus parades in the U.S.

Here they come!

After four other floats, finally a King!  It's Melcior!

Another King, and more on the way!

There have already been four kings and here's another!

There they go-o-o-o

On the evening before there was a huge parade in central Madrid. Candy rained down like gusts of huge, heavy snowflakes (and some of the children were even carrying umbrellas opened upside-down to catch it). This year, besides floats and marching bands and candy the parade featured a snow princess dressed in a beautiful flowing white gown, dancing in the air, held aloft by a huge white canopy of helium balloons.  We understand she earns her living by performing in parades all over Europe.

The deep mid-winter in Spain is not half bad!  This year there has only been snow once, and it melted before it hit the ground.  There has been a thin skiff of ice several mornings, but it has melted by noon. Sometimes the high is only in the 30's, it is often rainy and rather dreary, and the wind can be fierce, but without thick ice, blowing snow, and ugly inversions there seems little to complain about.  We fear a little that we are losing our northern Utah toughness.

We went on a long walk--to Parque Tio Pio with the Greaves and then on to Parque El Retiro just the two of us.  It was a nice crisp day for walking, and we took a route we had never taken before, down through a housing development that looks rather forbidding from the hills of Tio Pio but turned out to be quite nice, across the freeway, and through one of the few areas with single homes that we know of. There were fewer people in the park than usual, but there were birds in abundance, a few roses were still blooming despite several nights of freezing weather, the sidewalk salesmen were still offering their wares, and the buildings, fountains, lake and statues were as charming as ever.

Winter Roses

A Romantic Statue

Crystal Palace

We also went with Greaves to see the Chinese Terracota Warriors, an exhibit we missed when it was in Utah at BYU.  As well as the figures themselves it featured a short movie about how they were created, and several posters of historical information.  Created about 200 years B.C. to protect the emperor in the after-life, the whole army is estimated to consist of 8,000 soldiers as well as horses and chariots.  The faces of the warriors are individualized, no one being the same as another, and they are in various poses and uniforms.  It was fascinating!

Just before the close-down we went with Payas to visit one of their favorite towns, Chinchon.  The town plaza is round rather than square, and instead of the traditional bull ring they build bleachers encircling it for the week of "corrida de torros", or bull fights in June.  During the winter there was not much to see, but we can imagine it is charming in the summer.  Payas' favorite bakery was open, and they bought some "real Spanish bread, not like that sold in Madrid" which seems more like French bread.  It has a very fine texture and mild taste.  The funnest thing about the bakery was the woman who runs it--a real character, very gruff but constantly making comical comments.

Speaking of farewells, Grieves and Joneses went to visit Brother Torosian in his shop just before he left to look for work in Switzerland.  He is from Armenia, and his shop features Russian and Eastern European foods as well as Spanish.  He has been the go-to temple worker for helping the Russian missionaries who come to the MTC, and will be deeply missed.

There will be many things different when we return from close-down on February 3rd, but much will still be the same--God will still be in his Heavens and the Church will still be true!