Let me tell you about how the Spanish spend Christmas

Eating.



I was invited to eat Christmas Day dinner with a family that I'm friends with. I arrived at 12:40. (I was told to come between 12 and 12:30 and I was kind of stressed about being late). I should know by now that my being late is nothing compared to the way Spainards do late. They make me look good. I admit this is one of the reasons I choose to live here. Anyway, at 1:00 we began the later to be known as "Longest Christmas Dinner of My Life" or we could call it "The Day Camille's stomach grew three times it's size".

The dinner ended at 7:30 p.m. I'm drunk, mentally exhausted from so much spanish and am suffering from food paralysis minus finger dexterity.

I've been to long Spanish lunches before. Usually 2 -3 hours is normal. Luckily I got accustomed to this so I wasn't suprised at the 4-5 lunch we had when my parents were here. They flipped. Anyway this lunch blew the calcetines off those other ones. If you have ever been embarrassed about the amount of things on your daily food journals entries, read on. I will make you feel better.

Now I make you list of food.

1. Somekind of pinwheels made of roquefort cheese and ham. (3-4).
2. Pineapple juice and champagne. (3-4 glasses).
3. Mystery appetizer thing I kept being offered (3).
4. Cheese and ham on cracker (2).
5. Shrimp with garlic sauce.
6. Bread for the oily garlic sauce after the shrimp left.
7. Those big bad daddy shrimp. In spanish they are langostinos. I don't know how we say it in English. I am from Oklahoma. (3).
8. Crab legs. (2).
9. A large shell that contained a mixture of vegetables and scallops. (1).
10. Some ugly colored crab mixture thing that I can never remember the name of. This stuff I know I don't like and I kept trying to turn it down but I was besieged with a thousand "Pruebalo Camille! Pruebalo!" Fine. Ill try it again.
11. Salad.
12. Lamb and potatoes.
13. More bread.
14. Turron (customary spanish sweet during xmas season).
15. Ice cream with hot fudge and crunchy graham cracker sticks.
16. One slice of my cranberry pumpkin bread that really didn't fit in.
17. A bite of some mystery cream cake.
18. Polvorones. (1). A crumbly little candy thing they eat at xmas.
19. Champagne (2).
20. Coffee. (1).
21. Licor Cafe shot. (1).

I declined the after dinner drink.

Note: I don't list the wine because there was no way to count. I would turn my head and the uncle next to me was filling up my wine glass. I would go to the bathroom and my glass would be full again when I got back. I just decided to drink and be merry. Christmas, that is.

Anywayyyyyy...... I can't move. I am too full. My sweats gave me a warm welcoming hug when I put them on. P.S. Remember the girl from Oklahoma last year who was too scared to eat shellfish? I'm totally all over that sea food business now. It's just so damn good when its fresh! Although its pretty obvious I'm a novice at how to eat it. I can't really concentrate on two difficult things at once so I got pretty fixated with breaking shells and finding meat that I totally lost  track of the rapid spanish conversation around me. However I did catch Maria, the 8 year old near me, yell to her mom across the table, "Mommy! Ayuda Camille!" Apparently Maria saw I was failing.

Feliz Navidad desde Espana! BESOS!!!!!!!!!


Here are some pictures of things from google:


This one is especially hard for me to look like I know what I'm doing:



And funny note, when someone made me take another monster crab leg, Maria said "Jesus! Vas a comer otra??" She really knows how to make me feel good about this sea food biznass.