Christmas is in the Air

Walking around in Sevilla at night just got even more enjoyable. Now there are Christmas lights over almost every street, and each street has a different theme. It is a sign that Christmas is very near, and it also means that we are almost done with our semester abroad. 

The last couple weeks have been filled with "villancicos," or Christmas carols. First, we sang them at the Hospital de Caridad," where I had been playing bingo and dominoes every week. We sang what seemed like  20 carols for them, most of which were bilingual. The men seemed very happy to hear us despite our general lack of talent as a singing group.

The next week, we sang songs for the children at a convent at their Christmas party. We had bake sales throughout the year to raise money for the party, so we were able to buy all the kids gifts. In Spain, the main "gift givers" are the three wise men and not Santa, so who better to give the gifts than the three guys in the program? It was great getting to see the kids open what would probably be one of their only Christmas presents with such enthusiasm.

We also played a holiday-themed game with the kids. We divided into teams and then raced to blow up balloons as fast as we could. This was the easy part. Next, we had to stuff 4 balloons into each leg of a pair of nylons, which proved to be much harder than I would have thought. The point of this was that when you put the balloon-stuffed nylons on your head they looked like reindeer antlers. We had eight separate teams so at the end of the game, we had eight reindeer running around with their new, very floppy, antlers. 

I also got to see Isabel setting up her nativity scene, which seems to be a very big deal here in Spain. Several of the churches had signs advertising their nativity setup inside the church and there was a huge fair going on for the past month outside of the Cathedral that sold figurines for the nativity scenes along with any animal you could possibly want to accompany them.