Rocking my World Sunday?

Yes, I am a couple of days late with my weekly post, but I am going to write it anyway. Apologies to my family, some of whom will be wondering where I was on Friday!

It has been a mega-busy, but very happy week, with plenty to be grateful for, so here goes. 

We'll start with last Saturday when my Life Group (my church based home group), met up for a lunch time meal. We went o a new place for us, on the edge of Vera, and the food was excellent, as was the company. So we had a very enjoyable time together.

The next day was our church's carol service and our choir was leading the singing. I do love the traditional carols, so it was a great service.

Tuesday was a big day for me as it was Cantante's last major concert. It was special for me because it was in my village and I was involved with the organising of it. We used the village Tercera Edad building, (Third age or pensioner's club), as it is really the only place with a large enough hall. Chris and I, and  our friend Tony, went up in the afternoon to clear away all the tables, stacking them outside, and putting out rows of chairs. We managed to squeeze 94 seats in the hall, with another thirty or so stacked ready to go in the entrance hall if needed. 

I was worried in case there were not enough people there, but every chair was filled, and sadly we had to turn a few folk away. I was pleased to see that our Alcadesa came, (The Spanish mayoress of the village), and there was a good mix of Spanish and English families too.

Here I am with my friend Cati, who runs the charity ASADIS that we raise funds for. Together with our choir leader Julie, I had helped her to teach a group of the village children to sing 'Away in a manger in Spanish'. We were starting from scratch as it is not a carol they were familiar with at all, but they sang it really well. They then sang three more of their own traditional Christmas songs, accompanied by an Andlucian guitarist.

Here are two more photos of the choir. One of us 'in action' and a lovely smiling one at the end of the concert, knowing it had all gone really well.

The feed back from both English and Spanish was very positive. Many were moved to tears, and some of the Spanish folk just couldn't get over it. One said "Thank you so much. We don't get concerts in Los Gallardos". It is nice to be appreciated.

While everyone was arriving, I couldn't resist taking a quick photo of this big yellow moon just rising out of a low cloud bank. It looked so lovely. At the end of the evening we had to quickly get the chairs cleared away, and tables brought back in, as the next day I was too busy to do it.

This time I was off to my Wednesday sewing group's Christmas party. We met in our usual room to give out cards to one another, and enjoy some snacks and mince-pies (guess who made them!), with a glass of wine - or even champagne. Here we are trying to sing, with the actions, the Twelve Days of Christmas. It looks as though we are all concentrating on getting the words in the right order, but there was much merriment as well!

We even had a visit from Santa, seen here with out group organiser, Selina. We were all given a gift and when everyone had theirs' we opened them together. They were very useful little shoulder bags, just right for an evening out, or on a flight.

Then we all walked down the street to a local bar/restaurant for a beautiful Christmas dinner.

The next morning I had a nice surprise when I went

out, as the gardeners had been round planting poinsettias under each of the trees on the pavements. Ours are looking lovely, and you can see the splashes of red all the way up the road. I hope they survive for a while. It is a bit chilly here and they don't like a cold wind, but so far, so good.

On Thursday we had another meal to go to, this time we were both going. It was the "Town Hall Pensionista Christmas Lunch". There were four coach loads of us left the village around 1.00 to go to a function room about twenty minutes drive away. It was a huge room, beautifully decorated, and filled with tables for ten people each. So we all filed in and found a seat, and we were given an excellent five-course meal. There was a free bar all the time we were there, and although I don't drink very much, it was nice to be able to chose whatever we wanted instead of being restricted to wine. Wine and I don't get on very well together!

After the meal we were entertained by a young girl who sang and danced in Flamenco style, and then there was disco music so anyone who wanted to could get up and dance.

It got quite hot with so many people in there, so just before we got back on the coaches, I slipped outside for some air, just in time to catch this beautiful sunset.

Friday morning was my last chance to get to Turre Friday market, so Chris and I went down early to get fresh fruit and vegetables, and then on to the supermarkets in Vera for our meat. Every thing in the market looked so fresh and inviting. I had to buy this bag of chilies for just 1€. Don't they look lovely? Goodness knows what I will do with them all, but I will try to get some dried for storing.

Another stall had about seven different types of sweet peppers all for 2€ a kilo, so I had one of each just because I think they are so beautiful! The little prickly cucumbers were thrown in for free!

By the time I had put everything away, I had just enough time left to make my last batch of mince-pies (I made 50 dozen this year and there are just enough left for us!). Then we were off on the drive to Murcia airport to pick up our son Ben and his partner. What happened after that you will have to wait until next Friday to find out.

I am just going to link this up to Celtic House, even if it is rather late, and then I shall switch off and go and enjoy their company. They have to fly home again on Boxing day as Ben has to work. So I should be back again next Friday. 

A Very Happy Christmas to you all!! Hasta Luego!