Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Semana Santa

I've got another HUGE post in the works about adventures in Spain and France with Dan, but about 2 weeks ago was Semana Santa here in Spain and I guess you could say it's a pretty big deal here in Sevilla, so I had to post something about it.
The Semana Santa celebration here in Spain is probably one of the most popular in the world, if not the biggest and most popular.  Some people love it, while others just can't stand it and have to get out of the country for the week.  Emma and I are probably in the middle... We got out of the country for a little bit and then came back to see some of the celebration.

 If you were a foreigner (like us..) and you have never seen Semana Santa, you have to see it at least once.  There is nothing like it that I've ever seen... but on the other hand, if you live in the city center like us and you want to go somewhere really fast.. it ain't gonna be happenin...  What normally takes 5 minutes ends up taking 30 minutes because of the crowds.  We see both sides of the story. 

Of course the thing everyone notices are the "NazareƱos."  or as us foreigners would say.. the KKK.  If you think about it, it's kinda interesting...  You take a white blanket or robe and throw a pointy hat on top and you have 1 important symbol that represents 2 completely different things....  Religion or Racism.

Due to tradition and a belief system, both cultures see 2 totally different things.  When I look at the guys in purple, or green, or white... regardless of the color and thanks to American history...  the first silly thought that comes to mind is "racists."  When someone from Spain or another Catholic country outside the U.S. sees this symbol they might see a uniting "brotherhood" or right of passage passed down through hundreds of years.

Either way, this year there weren't many KKK/Nazarenos hanging out in processions and accompanying the "pasos" (the floats with the virgin Mary or Jesus carried by people) this year for Semana Santa.  This Semana Santa was dubbed one of the worst in recent years because it rained practically allllllllllll week long...  Rain = no semana santa.  Out of 6 or 7 days of what could have been 50 or more processions, we saw 1...... and we didn't even know it was there until we turned the street corner...   So here it is.  enjoy.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Ticos Meet Spaniards + Valentines!!!

Late in January, We had a great visit from out friends from Costa Rica!!  My good friend Hector and our new friend Laura came all the way from San Jose just to see us... more or less.  They were hanging out in Germany on vacation and decided to make a trip to the motherland of Spain and stop through Sevilla!  It was finally time that Hector came to visit us after I had made 3 trips to Costa Rica just to see him... more or less...

Hector and I go back a few years when Emma and I went to CR with Campus Crusade.  The 2 years following that, my friend Thomas and I, went back for a few more visits!  Ever since, we've stayed in touch and came to be great friends!  Emma and I were super pumped to have our first visitors!


Here are a few photos from the last 3 years/3 trips to see the "Rich Coast"
2008 with CCC

2009! Bocas del Toro for Semana Santa! and with Tomas Tomas!
2010! hittin up the skatin rink!



 


Lots of churros and coffee was had!  I could have pooped churros we ate so many!
Picking the "bitter" oranges from the tree to make some drinks!
Making gallo pinto.


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Here we played a game to see who could get the most people to look at them.  If someone looked at  you directly, you turn the other way and the person with the most "vueltas" wins. 


I won... of course!
Eating at Coloniales!  We love these guys!!

Hopefully one day, Hector will be able to come visit us in the states! We definitely plan on making more trips back to awesome Costa Rica!!! Vos queremos amigos!


In other news, today is Valentine's Day and Emma and I are headed to Barcelona next weekend to celebrate our 6 month anniversary/Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  To help us celebrate Valentine's Day (and to send us our battery charger we left in the states) my parents sent us another awesome care package!!!!!


Our first Valentine's as a married couple!!!!!!!


Palmera.  A typical spanish pastry. 

My heart should be made of chocolate because I eat it so much.
professional photos done by Hallmark.....

Our current computer background! made by emmiegirl!
 

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Reyes Magos

Sooo I know that the Christmas season has already passed, at home and here in Spain, but just for the sake of posting about stuff that is cool around town and what we're doing, I wanted to share this little diddy.

Jussssttt before we left for Morocco, Spain celebrated their Christmas equivalent, Los Reyes Magos.  Even though they kinda, sorta, but not really celebrate Christmas on the 25th as well, Los Reyes Magos is the big winter holiday.  All the little Spanish kids write letters to the 3 Kings telling them what they want for "Christmas" (I mean Reyes Magos) and of course if they've been good boys and girls, they get their presents!  It kind of makes sense that the 3 kings/wise men bring the kids gifts instead of Santa Clause because I don't remember baby Jesus getting a visit from a big fat guy in a red suit...  who knows? maybe one of the wise men was fat and wore red? We'll know one day I'm sure.

 ???This is normally where I might put a picture of something I thought was funny and photo-shopped a picture of Santa Clause with my face in the Nativity scene but I found it to be too tedious and I wasn't sure if it would have been sacrilegious or not... so instead here's a pic from photo booth???


The 6th of January is full of presents, food, Spanish treats, parades, and lots of crappy candy.

There were lots of parades going on around town the day before and I missed out on the candy, so Emma and I knew we had to see the big parade on the 6th!  We walked around town for an hour or so in search of the parade, didn't find it, and went home for a quick break....  THEN.... when we went back out for a second try, we saw tons of kids walking in the opposite direction with bags fullll of candy!!  We missed it!!!!
The mobs of people walking past us, taunting us with their bags of candy.
We stumbled upon some great new areas for taking walks while in search of parades.



Making of a good scary movie.  This is also a good symbol of how we felt having missed the parade...
This is us being cheered up even though we didn't find the parade..... Thanks to our self timer, we could cherrish these moments forever.

JUST KIDDING.....  we really thought we missed the parade, so we headed to the grocery store "El Corte Ingles" to pick up some dinner and when we came back outside, we stumbled upon this massive mob of people filling the streets.  We couldn't have made it home even if we tried. 


These "shepherds" look like they need to be put down..... as in the same way you'd put down a zombie.
The floats of the parade weren't your typical Christmas floats, even though there were a few "middle eastern" themed floats with several big floats reserved for the 3 kings.  You won't find and Frostys or Rudolphs here... but below you will find some of our favorites from the night!

Alice.
Pirates and Mermaids.

maybe a Harry Potter float???  or aliens/rockets/tinmen
Memoirs of a Geisha.

It's crazy how frantic people get when the candy throwing starts.  Pictures don't do justice to the 40 yr old men crawling around on the ground and elbowing us in the face multiple times to get to that cough drop.
But we were soooo happy to be going home with a raw chicken and tons of menthol candy!!!!!! (and a pack of cheetos and some weird fruit chews)
Taking home the candy!

We wondered why we saw people with grocery bags on their shoes...........
The streets were sticky for a good 2 days.  and my shoes were for about 5..

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Over The Break! Part 2!!

After traveling between Memphis, Dallas, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, we were finally back in Decatur for basically the remainder of our time in the States!

The week before Sarah's wedding (12th-18th) was filled with all things awesome!!!  That Sunday through Tuesday was full of just fartin around and hanging out!! We indulged in lots of Christmas treats, movies, and music! Things we definitely would have missed if we had stayed in Spain!!  We loved being home for the holidays!
A rare case of air dandruff hit Decatur on our first day back!!
I paid for that haircut.  Matt didn't pay for Sally to sit on his head.

sally the melancholy reindeer/beagle
Both of my parents LOVE The Elf. And having their picture taken!
just fartin around!
Flirting before the wedding.... ewww!
Other things we did besides just fartin around, lots of searching for some tight outfits and dirty Santa gifts.  Wednesday night the 15th was reserved completely for our first annual Teague tacky Christmas/Dirty Santa/Gingerbread house contest.  We decided to do it this year because Sarah was getting married! and would be in Dallas for Christmas, but we hope the tradition continues on because it was incredible.  Wednesday was also the first day my whole family had been together in one place since practically September!!  Andddd, on top of that, everyone had a date!!!!

that aint a woman's suit.
i promise ally girl just be drinking some sparkling grape juice!! and kev is bout to drive a motocar!
My sister married a used car salesman.
Flannel and weird pijamas are in this year.  i mean, every year.

Hey Corey, give me back my sweet baggy cargo khaki's with 25 pockets that are from Old Navy that I wore in middle school.
Ally girl and her popcorn!!






Our first try at "Dirty Santa" as a family was a pretty awesome success minus the fact that I looked like a pumpkin pie haircutted freak with that Reindeer hat I won.  I also won CandyLand and a pair of girl's socks.... (I still love you anyways Sarah hehe, and I cut you some slack because it was your wedding week...and it's called "Dirty" Santa)  Emma came away with 3 pairs of girls socks, Scrabble Slam!, and some lotion.  I was REALLY tempted to go out and buy a really crappy silly crazy funny gift like my family might expect of me, but this year because of my dad's plea to get all "nice" gifts so that nobody felt like they got jipped, I got what seemed like a fairly decent gift.  I bought a sleeping bag, which I wanted back... but as normal dirty sanchez games go, I didn't win the sleeping bag.  Everyone won as follows:
Daniel- my sleeping bag and other assorted gifts (glowsticks, batteries, and 3 breath mints, a year old candycane)
Ana - a tent
Matt- a  Toy Story 3 kid's shaving kit
Sarah- Nerf guns
Rachel-something I don't remember
Corey- An airplane that only flew 5 times
Mommy- Popcorn
Dad- A goldfish which he didn't take care of and it died 2 days later.


Immediately after Dirty Santa, we made some tight Gingerbread houses.  It wasn't really a contest but everyone tried hard.... until 2 of the houses melted and the roof started sliding off.. then the windows started dripping...  then someone ate part of the tree and some of the decorations.
Emma was very happy that our house began to crumble! literally into crumbs heheheheheheelkas
Daniel and Ana's wasn't as good as ours.
Emma and I were the weiners overall!  Matt and Sarah won tallest and most licked icing.  Daniel/Ana won most reindeer and turtle necks.  Corns and Rachel won nicest bow tie.
AWWWWW!
In all seriousness, the night of our family Christmas festivities was one of my favorite things we've ever done!  Emma and I are so blessed by my family


Thursday and Friday were spent running some last minute errands before wedding time hit!!  Saturday for the guys basically meant running back and forth to the airport, making sure all the dudes made it in town ok! For the girls it meant a nice cute little brunch and making bouquets!!!

All the cute little girls having little brunches with little bouquets!!!

Aint she purdy!!!!
Saturday night was also the night of the wedding rehearsal dinner!!  It was pretty scrumptious!  The night was full of making lots of new friends, laughing, crying, talking about Matt and Sarah, and just basically enjoying the community and oneness that weddings bring.  Of course I cried during my speech... so did daniel.... and sooo did my dad..........and my mom goes without saying.  but it wouldn't have been made complete if I hadn't caught our table on fire with my napkin....   it was a complete accident but extremely hilarious.  who knew that fire burns paper?


Cutie Patooties!
We love weddings because it reminds us of when we got married sooooo long ago!

The day of the wedding turned out to be great!  The weather was incredible.  It wasn't really that cold at all.  The morning was spent decorating with my mom and grandparents and helping Matt pack up the rest of their U-Haul.  We even got a short game of football in, while Emma and the girls played and got ready! 

The wedding was beautiful!  We had tons of fun eating delicious food, hanging out with old and new friends, and of course bustin moves out on the dance floorrrr!!!!!!!
The whole gang!
The ladies!
Some of my new breast frands!!  I love these guys.




















This is Matt and Sarah cutting the cheese.  And getting ready to head on out of the wedding right before someone threw a sparkler in the tree and almost set the whole Monte Sano Park on fire.
Congrats to my beautiful sister and her awesome husband Matt.  The Lord will definitely use both of you to grow one another and share His love, without a doubt.  We love you so much and glad that a bunch of Nutt's are now part of our family!!!!  Emma and I look forward to lots of family outings with them in the future!




Christmas Eve and Christmas day are 2 of my favorite days of the year!  Normally the routine starts off with us going to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  Then we head on over to my uncle's house and everybody who ever was a Teague comes out for the get-together and the southern spread of food.  Then just my dad's immediate family sticks around for presents and watching my Memaw use a ShakeWeight.  Then we all part ways and everyone under 25 (next year it bumps up to 26) goes to Waffle House to ring in the Christmas Day with tradition!!  It's always my friends from high school and church that I haven't gotten to see in a while and I love catching up with them.  It's easy to just pick back up where we left off.   I love them.  Then we go home and nestle sweetly in our beds until Santy Claws comes!!


On our way to the Christmas Eve service and off to my uncle's house for Teague family Christmas
 The year's we spend out at my uncle's house seem to get better every year!  I don't know if I've said it enough but I love my family!  We always end up talking about when we were little kids or old family friends that are as crazy as they come.  We even looked at pics from the 1950s and 60s of my dad and his brothers.  This  year, Emma finally got to see what a Teague Christmas was like!  I loved introducing her to the fam as my wife and of course one of the newest Teague's. 
Los Teagues!!
Memaw loves it!  She also bought The Hangover as her gift to give away because she loves that movie..

Christmas Eve as always!  Don't even know how many years and counting!!!

Christmas DAYYYYYY is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!! 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel' -which means 'God with us'.

and of course we open up presents from Center Clues..

This Christmas was particularly awesome because it snowed like never before!! Unfortunately we couldn't drive to Birmingham like normal to see my other cousins and grandparents.... but we still had fun locked in our warm house!
We always wake up and Sunter Cloons always leaves his presents in the designated spot that we call before we go to sleep.  The whole day was just spent relaxing, playing in the snow, and playing with all of our new toys that Sanduh Clones brought.  It alsooooo marked Emma and I's first Christmas as a married couple!!!!!!!!!!! yipeeeee!!!! We loved it!
Christmas Day!!

Enjoying Christmas lunch! We made Breakfast!

Sally loves Christmas!
Dominating Ray in the snow!
Getting dominated by Emma for dominating Ray in the snow!
The day after Christmas, we got a little visit from our best frands, the Hesters!!!!!!! alskdjfamn,vjasikji
We took advantage of the snow that we barely get in Alabama and made a sweet ramp!!!! After many attempts at pulling each other on a bike and with a string, Dan joined in to add some extra horse power and we got some air off a 1 foot ramp on a lawn chair cushion.  Sawyer, their new pup even helped out by eating the trash bag that was holding the law chair cushion.  He even had yellow snow.  I can't wait to spend more time with them when we get back from Spain! 
I love these guys!!!!!

This post might seem long, but I like putting up pictures way more than I do writing words.  Even though I might write a lot of words too.....
You can basically see even more pictures of our time at home on my sister Rachel's facebook page.....

In a previous post we mentioned that we are already back in Spain!  It's been about a month since we've been back and things are still moving along wonderful.  We're really learning to cherish our time here in Spain since we've only got 4 more fast moving months left.  School has done been started back and we are planning vacations throughout Europe as we speak!  We hope the next 4 months go by super slow and if you're in the area, drop us a line!