Gabriel's 1st Birthday!

Last Saturday marked my senora’s grandson’s first birthday! Soooo to celebrate the special occasion, everyone flocked to her vacation home out in the country on the lake. Gloria and I actually left on Friday with her sister, Carrie, who drove us there. The home is beautiful and newly renovated. She also keeps the place spotless and extremely clean which I loved! I had my own room while she and Carrie shared a room and her daughter, Glo, and her husband had a room to themselves too. We spent Friday cleaning up a bit, cooking and getting situated for the party the next night (Saturday night). The weather was SO amazing, Gloria her sister and I had lunch outside on the patio. No jackets needed here! After lunch I sat down and got some homework done. Sure enough, Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law showed up with Gabriel, the birthday boy! He is adorable and has the curliest blonde hair out of anyone else in Spain. Later that night, Gloria, Carrie and I watched the second twilight movie in complete Spanish with no English subtitles because the remote was broken. 

About fifteen minutes into the move we all fell asleep including Bastet (the cat) who was sitting on my lap. At the same time we all woke up laughing because of what had happened and decided to just go to bed. It was actually pretty early too, maybe 11:15pm or 11:30. The next day was fiesta day! This was the real day of preparation. In order to have a good start we sat down and had a complete family breakfast Spanish style with tortilla (Egg omelet with potatoes essentially). I even was spoiled and had real cow milk instead of soy milk! Anyways, I did more homework after that and Skyped with my parents because they were arriving in Madrid the very next day. Once that was over, some people started to arrive (Gloria’s other sister and Alex, her one and a half year old grandson). Alex knows Spanish and English, but to keep teaching him English, his grandma only talked to him in English. I thought this was cool and a smart thing to do at such a young age. Alex is the third child out of four boys who are ALL bilingual in Spanish and English. While Alex and Gabriel were playing in the ball pit, the rest of us cleaned up and continued getting ready. 

Alex (Left) & Gabriel (Right)

A Spanish birthday party is very different from a birthday party in the U.S. Gabriel’s birthday party was only a cake/dessert party with opening gifts. We literally had about 7 cakes and pies. The amount was INSANE, but it made sense because there were a lot of people there. In fact I talked to almost all of them and kept getting compliments on my Spanish!! Some of them thought I was a cousin or related to Gabriel in some way, shape, or form, but nope. I am just the exchange student. Another interesting thing is that they do not sing happy birthday. They sing two other songs which are in Spanish but I have never heard before. Anyways, we all had an excellent time celebrating Gabriel’s first birthday. Instead of handing out “goodie bags” to the kids, everyone received a big square plate to fill up with the various cakes to bring home. This is the Spanish form of goodie bags and such an interesting concept.  Gloria even made a special cake with the sole purpose to be taken home. Overall, I had an excellent time, met some really nice family members and got to practice my Spanish!