A New Year

Ringing in the New Year in Bilbao- a de Abiega tradition......

The festivities begin with a Spanish tapas style dinner around 10pm and always include 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight (imposed action shot seen here). This is also when you hear/see all the fireworks going off from the neighbor's (and i mean all of them) apartment windows! Typically the parties then start around 2am and you won't find a soul on the street before then.

followed the next day with our New Years lunch/ Ricardo's Birthday Celebration (Jan 1st!)/ Early Three Kings Celebration - the Spanish do gifts on this holiday rather than Christmas (normally celebrated on Jan 6th)

Wishing you all a Happy 2012!

Home for the Holidays

HOME! We had the whole weekend to spend together and it was unforgettable. Lots of relaxing, eating, laughing and enjoying the time together. The matching pajamas topped it off just right!

A belated Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

Addie was in full form on Christmas day, laughing, talking and so outgoing. She would open a gift and say "whoever gave me this, I'm going to hug them". Adorable! When it came time to try on some of her new princess clothes, she turned into the most modest little thing. It was precious.

My favorite picture with Uncle Ricky and Aunt LeeAnn- this was the same day she entered and said "I think I'm going to be shy around Ricardo". I think not. =)


After Christmas we drove to see the Odom's in Nashville, I'll have to upload the dual family pic- but this is one of my fav's!


and the 2nd annual Christmas at Cracker Barrell with Kellye O!

Christmas in New York

Our first stop on the way home for the holidays..... New York City!

a trip to NY wouldn't be complete without a Hoboken dinner at J.R's! My heart just melted when Ricardo played "Here comes the sun" on the Juke Box- memories from our wedding weekend....

courtesy of my past 2 years of hotel points, we indulged and stayed at the Waldorf

the sites and sounds were the perfect kick-off to our Christmas Holiday

to try out something new we headed over to Williamsburg in Brooklyn for a nice walk and yummy Pizza!

Espana with the Walters!!

What a treat! Liz and Chris came to visit right before the holidays and we had so much fun playing host and showing off our city. In usual "Riches" fashion, we hit Madrid, Patones del Arriba, El Escorial, Segovia and Avila. In 3 days! Lots of fun!!

We started with tapas at Mercado de San Anton and then on to Mercado San Miguel. In the middle.... battling the thousands of people out to see the Christmas market.

later to see the night time view of Palacio Real and la Catedral.

Sundays are a perfect day trip to Patones (a little village destroyed during the war with amazing mountain views and a very old time feeling). Great food as well!

Such a sunny day in Segovia. We did a quick walk by the Roman Aqueducts (still standing from the 1st century!), ate some Segovia famous Cochinillo at Meson Candido, the cities oldest restaurant (1786) and spent the day visiting the cathedral, Alcazar and enjoying the walks thru the town.

love this pic! we were trying to make sure we didn't have shadows on our faces!

and a quick quick trip to Avila to see the old city walls still standing- of course, i don't have a picture of the walls.... just the bakery!

take 2

one of these days we're going to take a good picture..... Silvia and I have the worst luck with self-timed shots, asking strangers and generally just not coming out with a good pic.
it does capture a nice winter day in Madrid quite well though. complete with starbucks!

90 cent wine

Yes. Lorca might not be known for much. But we ate plentiful and highly enjoyed our 90 cent glasses of wine! Ricardo had been recording a new album here in Madrid over the past few months. While in the process he got a call from a promoter announcing that his band had one a contest and out of over 400 bands they were selected to produce an album. Another album aside from the one he's currently working on. So off to Lorca we go for a quick 4 days in the studio. I decided to tag along.... work from the road.... and see what Lorca had to offer. 90 cent wine.

this was taken from a church near the studio. Lorca had a devastaring earthquake last year. There are cracks in almost every building you see.

Ricardo playing in the studio

Love Division live in Barcelona

A nice November day.... a concert in Barcelona.... and a great excuse for a day off to walk around the city.

Starting the day with a croissant de chocolate and a nice cafe con leche in the plaza

a visit to the Market La Boqueria


Paella on the beachfront with Javi and Ani (our good friends from Madrid), followed by drinks with Susana (a friend/past colleague of mine from Maersk)


Then a weekend of Rock n' Roll with the boys

a special tribute to the past- with Ricardo on drums!