instead of a tree (which we never have in s.f. either) we decorated a flower arrangement some friends brought the other evening with homemade things...arel made several bayern munich soccer decorations, i hung my key ring from san francisco, some channukah gelt, a beer can for barak, a big snowflake made by arel, a plastic fly sent by sven for halloween...it was random and improvised and nice. this picture doesn't really do justice, but here it is.
in the evening we went down to the old gothic quarter to have dinner with a family from school. after a delicious dinner with lots of cava and wine we walked around the old town looking at the all the lights strung up on the streets of barcelona this time of year. lots of people out and about, but dorian put his foot down and said it was time to go home. i fondly remember this time from when i lived here before. the difference is that now all the lights are eco-friendly and they only turn them on from 6 to 9.
we came home from our outing and exchanged gifts and opened packages sent from my sister karen and my mom. opening packages from abroad brought back the many years one of my german grandmothers used to send our family a big box shipped from germany, full of chocolate and cookies. this time we got some great books and maple syrup from karen and family, with cards from caio and senta, a funny dental floss holder, and a hat and calendar for barak. my mom sent us a propaganda package, full of "i love s.f." t-shirts and hats, and an obama t-shirt for barak...very funny!
tomorrow a new adventure to the land of barak's birth. i'm looking forward to finally getting to know this place, both from the family perspective, but also because of all the history there. i wrote to a cousin of my dad's that we were going and he said israel, out of all the places he has been, has made the most impression on him.
time to cut apples for apple crisp and then head off to hang out with the jamaicans in our life!
