Births,Returns, Birthdays and Saints

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen, after a long wait of the latest bcn stlye blog, I present to you Susanna and the big surprise, Gerard!! As you can see it is all in working order and quite close to perfection and that is pure joy. I have promised to be the best speaking English aunt I possibly can be and have already brought a few English speaking toys from the states to prepare the little munchkin.Aside from the big belly above, there have been other wonderful things happening in my little world. As most of you know, I had to go to California for a few weeks to put my final documents in order. It was a nice mini-vacation that was very much needed and I got to see a lot of faces I hadn't seen in a while or didn't get to see last time I was there. I have decided that Febuary beats Christmas time by a million since the stress level is -10! On the way back, as I made my way through London Heathrow, I decided to contact my friend Antonella who I hadn't seen in almost more than 3 years and it was fabulous to catch up and remind each other that space is not ever large enough to distance a friendship. She has been working hard on her photography and looks great and at home in London...Check out her website: http://www.antonellafabiani.com/

Of course, returning to Barcelona meant catching up on everything I had missed and already I had a list of things to do and an agenda full of beautiful faces I had to see that I had missed so much. To start off with, it was the lovely Mary Katherine's Birthday and we took her to the typical wooden benched restaurants and bars in El Raval, treating her to pitchers of Sangria and finished off dancing in a stylish velvelty bar, making fools out of ourselves but having the time of our lives...God it's fun being a girl!!! Happy Birthday MK!!

Then this past weekend we were suddenly celebrating Easter and that meant I had to go on vacation once again and visit my favorite pals in Tarragona for the weekend. If you recall, last year I got to see the processions that they do in Tarragona and I signed myself up once again to see it and welcome Spring even though it continues to be cold...Like the year before, I was truly inspired by the devotion these people put into their religion and traditions. The statues are giantesc, with the candles flickering in the cold late winter breeze and the sinners carrying their petitions of forgiveness on their backs and bare feet.

After the

processions, we made our way through the old city of Tarragona to have a wonderful dinner with Carles, who will always remind me of summertime and the incredible time I had with him in August. We celebrated by having drinks and re-uniting once again. Somethings just don't change and I am ever so okay with that.

Then on Saturday night, Mary Katherine joined us and got the honor of meeting the famous T-group straight from Tarragona. We danced, caught up on the last few months of madness and began dreaming about what we would do for the summer that is just around the corner and you can feel it, even if the bite in the air still screams winter. It's coming and you can tell by the lovely smiles on our faces.

In all the talk, I mentioned how I really wanted a godfather in Catalunya so I could get a "mona" a delicious cake with cream and chocolates like all the other kids get. Both Cristina (on the far right) and Luis (center man in pink shirt), took me seriously and on Sunday, before heading back to Barcelona they called me up and told me that my very own mona with Nutella and peanut M&Ms was ready!! and so it is official, I will NEVER grow up and I will forever be in good hands since I now have 'the' godfather taking care of me....thanks Luis! Below is the creation of my lovely mona which I just finished sharing with Alex and will share with all my other friends since that is usually the point of eating the mona, the coming together of friends. I love this country!

I went to a tiny chapel for mass by myself, I laughed my head off for three straight days, I had a mona and more importantly, I was surrounded by amazing people who continuosly demonstrate to me that love is really everywhere, all you have to do is look around you. On holidays like this, I like to think that I am truly blessed and to take the time to give a little thanks for all the amazing things that continuosly happen in my life. "All you need is love, tan tan tan tan tum, all you need is love love love" Happy Easter to all!!!

PS...Idoia's love letter to the world, I got a crack out of it! Go get 'em girl: