Wrapping it up with Bolo Rei

Three Kings’ Day

 

As I was mentioning just yesterday , we do have this tradition of only taking down our Christmas decorations on January 06 , or the day after it , but never before ; because the 6th of January (12 nights after Christmas) is the day when we celebrate Epiphany  – the visit of the Three Kings (or the Three Wise Men) to Baby Jesus .

We do eat Bolo Rei on this day but also on Christmas Day and throughout the whole season (it is so good – in my opinion – that we had to extend its season 😉  )

From Wikipedia :

The cake itself is round with a large hole in the centre , resembling a crown covered with crystallized and dried fruit .

The bolo rei is baked from a soft, white dough , with raisins , various nuts , and crystallized or candied fruit . Also included is the characteristic dried fava bean , and tradition dictates that whoever finds the fava has to pay for the bolo rei next year. A small prize (usually a small metal toy) was also included within the cake. The inclusion of the prize has been discontinued since mid-90s, due to potential choking hazards.

So tomorrow night I plan to say farewell to my beautiful Christmas Tree while I indulge in a few slices (hopefully the last ones this January , as this cake tends to be the real king of bloating somehow) of Bolo Rei accompanied by a very nice English Earl Grey Tea (it could be Champagne , but I’m afraid there’s not a sip left) .

But tonight after everyone has retired , I plan to sit all by myself in the quiet , appreciating the soft glow of the beautiful twinkling lights , maybe even light a candle or two , and give thanks for this Christmas .

I was dreading it , trying to escape from it (that would have been a totally futile exercise I realize now , but truly there were some days that I wanted to jump out of this Carousel ) , but in the end it turned out to be so much better than the past three ones , and I am not talking about gifts here or food and drinks .

Then I will write down in my little Christmas Scrapbook ( a work in progress ) what was it that made this one special , what I did to make it work , what went well and is worth repeating .

So next year if I start panicking and despairing that it will be the worst Christmas ever , I can go over my little scrapbook – if I can find it that is , or even remember that it exists – and look back on this year for a little inspiration .

But let’s hope that things keep changing for the better – and may I have the energy and the willingness to keep working at it – so I will not need to look up my tips from this year . Ah ! that would be swell 🙂

And I will be including you all my dear Turtlies in my thanks , because your support and inspiration and the good wishes you sent my way were no doubt a great help throughout this season . ❤

 

I have no dancing or music suggestions for you today (odd , I know) , but instead you might want to look at the interesting pictures that our Becky B. published in HiddenDelightsoftheAlgarve  where she talks about January 06th and the Portuguese love for nativity scenes in her post The Last Day of Christmas  .

 

Turtle Hugs 🙂