Happy New Year!

Dear Readers,

This is my first post in 2018 so I´d like to wish all of you a Happy New Year.

I hope you have a year as wonderful as all the pictures of the Sylvanian Families 2018 calendar.
YES! I´ve been very very lucky to get one!

Last year, I got a SF calendar as a bonus gift when I joined the Premium Fan Club. This year it seems there is no calendar included with the winter magazine so I didn´t expect to get it.

I couldn´t believe my good luck the day I saw a SF 2018 calendar for sale at a bargain price. Sylvanians are becoming more and more popular in Spain but, as far as I know, this calendar is not easy to find so the last thing I could expect was to find the calendar for sale in Spain.

My only regret was to ask for ordinary mail instead of registered mail.

The calendar took more than a month and a half to arrive. As days passed by, I really lost the hope to get it. I felt so disappointed... but it finally arrived when least I expected.

A notification from the post office arrived two days  before the 6th of January, the day when we  get presents at Christmas time in Spain. I wasn´t at home at that time so it was my husband the one who went to the post office to pick up the calendar. He didn´t tell me anything about the desired package. Instead,he wrapped it up as if it were one more present from "The Three Kings or The three Wise Men" (Los Reyes Magos). (I told you about this spanish Christmas tradition in one of my old posts.) 

I was elated when the morning of the 6th of January I unwrapped my presents and surprisingly I found the calendar. Nobody could understand why I was so excited! 

If you are a Sylvanian collector or you just like Sylvanians you know this is not just an ordinary calendar and the fact that I lost hope to get it made it  even more special.

It´s lovely! This year the pictures of March, May, September and December feature the town new series.

This is the January picture. Lovely winter scene , don´t you think so?

I´ll probably post a picture of the calendar at the beginning of each month.Even if I don´t have pictures or stories to post on my blog, I´ll just pop in to say hello and wish you a happy month,just as Emily did on her blog  "Dandelion Creek" in 2016.

I consider the calendar a present from the "The Three kings". "It was lost and "Los Reyes Magos" founded it for you mum, aren´t they amazing?" My 7th year old daughter said. She knew  how much I was so looking forward to it.

By the way, these are some of the presents "The Three Kings" gave me. I only took a picture of the Sylvanian gifts.

I´m delighted with my new additions! I especially like the Dormouse family and baby. They are so cute!

If you are from Spain or familiar with spanish christmas traditions you will have recognized the ring shaped cake on the table straight away. 
In case you are curious about it, I´m going to tell you something about this tradition.

It is called "Roscón de Reyes" and it is traditionally eaten on the 6th of January, on Kings´Day. The "roscón" is a sweet, brioche-like bread made into a ring to resemble a crown. It is usually decorated with colourful candied fruit to represent the jewels on the crown.

The first day of January, and even earlier, bakeries and cake shops display the "Roscón de Reyes" on their shelves and windows.

It can be eaten plain or stuffed with fillings such as whipped cream, whipped custard or chocolate cream. Yummy, yummy!

In addition, there are two plastic wrapped surprises hidden inside the cake: a fava bean and a king figurine.

The unlucky person that finds the bean will have to buy next year´s roscón.

Whoever finds the king gets to wear the paper crown that comes with the cake. Every family memeber gets involved in the search of the hidden surprises and each one wants to be crowned!

I found the king this year!

To finish this post I´d also like to show you a present that arrived only two days after the Three Kings´s Day and that I was also looking forward to receiving it.
It came from Germany and it also took a long time to arrive. It was from Nina who has a lovely blog "At the Periwinkles"

The sweets she sent are already gone but look at her lovely handmade card and miniatures.
Thank you so much, Nina!

One more thing, my daughter wants me to show you one of her presents from The Three Kings.
A 300 pieces sylvanian families puzzle.

I didn´t have the intention to write a post as long as this one but one thing led to another and it ended up being much longer than I meant.
I just wanted to wish you a happy new year and show you the SF calendar but then I thought I could also show you my presents.
When I saw the picture of the Christmas presents I thought it could be interested to write about the "Roscón de Reyes". Hope you didn´t get bored. Maybe, some of my pictures made you a bit hungry. 😋 

Have a nice weekend!

A big hug!