Christmas

OK. I am very late in entering this, but the theme is Christmas. I spent Christmas in Granada, which is where I studied abroad three years ago. When I studied abroad in Granada I became good friends with Paco, the grandson of my host mother, and we have stayed in contact over the past few years. Paco invited me to spend Christmas with his family which was absolutely awesome because I already knew a good amount of his family. In Spain Christmas eve is the big Christmas celebration, greater than Christmas day. The night is called Noche Buena, which means the good night.
On Noche Buena apparently it is normal for all the young people in the family to go out to bars before and after the family celebration. So on the 24th of December I went out to bars at 3pm with Paco, his cousins and his cousins friends. I felt that this was very abnormal because to me Christmas Eve and Christmas day is a time you spend with your family, not a time to go out to bars and clubs to party. But when I went out it was apparent that in Spain it is very normal to go out on Noche Buena because all of the bars were packed at three in the afternoon. We drank and danced until six then went to his grandmother’s house. When we arrived the house was packed with 34 family members cooking, eating, drinking, and shouting. Everyone helped prepare the dishes for dinner and snacked at the same time. Everyone was very friendly and happy to have me at the party. Every other minute an auntie or and uncle was feeding me a different kind of food.
After picando (snacking) for almost three hours we sat down at the tables. At dinner it was obvious that the grandmother was the most important figure at the table. She sat at the head of the table and when she said the prayer before eating some of the cousins continued to talk all of the older cousins yelled at them “How disrespectful and shameless you are! Shut up and listen to your grandmother!” They were adamant about showing respect to their grandmother.  She was very funny and nice to me by ending her prayer with “And to our American friend who didn’t understand a word that I just said, but whom we are very happy to have with us here!”
 After the speech the dishes started to travel around the table. There were so many different kinds of foods that it was impossible to try every one and not become stuffed. I was already full from drinking at the bar and then snacking for three hours, but I had to keep eating. I ate soup, marinated salmon, stuffed peppers, shrimp, cured ham, pork loin, a seafood loaf (it seemed like meatloaf but with shrimp and crab) and a few other plates that I can’t remember. When I finally threw out the white flag and decided I couldn’t possibly eat anymore I was so bloated from food that I literally had trouble breathing. I have never eaten so much food in my entire life. I was packed with food that it hurt for me to move.
After eating everyone sat around and talked for about two hours to digest a little. I never stopped feeling completely stuffed that night. Despite feeling too full to do anything Paco and I had to go out and light fireworks and party with his friends (completely normal to do in Spain at 1 am on Christmas Eve). We ended up going to a discoteca but we were so full and so tired that in the end we decided to turn in early and go home at 4:30.
On Christmas day we hung out and relaxed. The family had another meal in the afternoon and in the evening Paco, his cousins and I rode go-carts and went bowling.
It was a great experience. I missed mom, dad and Hali a lot during Christmas time, but it was really nice to be able to spend time with friends and a family that was so welcoming and friendly.