Beginning of Christmas Festivities

December 16, 2008

The Christmas season is starting. Much of Northern Spain is covered with snow and the shops are all in Christmas mode. The streets are decorated and everywhere there are these parties called Zambombas which are a mixture of flamenco and Xmas carols. In addition to all of this, my old friend Steve Kahn showed up to do a flamenco photo exhibit in Jerez and so we got to hang out together for a while.

Here is a link to Steve's show for those of you interested in great flamenco pix.
http://www.flamencophotoproject.com

And here is Steve. We have been doing flamenco together for 40 some years - whew!
The local peña invited us to a big Christmas luncheon and seated us in a place of honor with Miguel and the gypsy family related to the guy the peña is named after. It was a great feed.
Here we all are singing Xmas carols.

After lunch, we were called up on stage where Steve played while I sang and then I played while Negro and Miguel sang. Here is Miguel.

And then after that, all the singers gathered at a table in the bar and I accompanied them for the next 5 hours. They sang just about everything including things that I'd never played before. But I just faked it and it came out fine. Just about as much fun as a person can have with their clothes on!

Next week we drive up to Madrid where we will get to visit with the family and will be joined by Elinore and Robin (Andi's daughter and boyfriend) and my daughter Nancy, her husband Isaac and sons Diego and Quique. They are all flying in for the holidays.