Thanksgiving week

 So last year we had Thanksgiving on the road between Sarasota and Miami at an Alligator rest stop.  We had packed Jimmy John's sandwiches and chips and sodas.  We knew even the fast food joints along the highway would be closed on the holiday - so we got sandwiches ahead of time. This year we have a different story. Much has changed since last Thanksgiving. We completed the process of obtaining a visa for residence in Spain. We entered the country on December 26th.  

Reflecting on the last year(s) as we spent what I am fairly sure was our first Thanksgiving out of the States.

We started the process of moving to Spain in June 2022 when SCOTUS in one weekend 1. Overturned Roe v Wade 2. Decimated the EPA authority to keep our environment clean 3. Decimated the Native American justice system and 4. Restricted voting rights. I turned to Phil and said "that's it, we are leaving. This is no longer our country!" In the next months we sold off our remaining real estate holdings. Then we went to Florida and sold our place there in November 2022. In early 2023 we went to Spain to scout out possible places to live and did six weeks of immersion Spanish classes in Sevilla. We spent another month checking out Malaga, Alicante, and Valencia. Valencia was still in the running until we returned to Sevilla after obtaining residence visas in December 2023. 

It wasn't long after we returned to Sevilla that we both knew we had found our "home.". We did spend a month in Valencia in spring 2024 just to be sure but although we loved it - we lived Sevilla more. By February 2024 we had signed a three year lease on our place here.  We are in process with renewal of our visas (this time for two years) and consider ourselves political refugees. Not kidding. Saw the handwriting on the wall in June 2022. Not at all surprised by the election results. 

Told Phil "you can leave in a suitcase or you can leave in a coffin; I pick suitcase." Antisemitism is growing and we've seen this movie before. After this renewal of our visas we have one more two year renewal and then have permanent status (kind of like green card) to reside in Spain. 

We love it here. The lifestyle is much more stress free. People stop on the street for conversations. The fruit stand and shop keepers greet you when you pass by. The cost of things is lower than the States. So we go on... Sad for what has happened to what we thought was our country but clearly was not a shared vision of America. Time marches forward and the world changes. We lived in the best of times. We didn't know it but we sure do now. 

So here was my FB post on Thanksgiving- 

"Happy Thanksgiving 🦃🦃🦃 I know I won't get a lot of tearful emojis when I tell you that this is as close as I am going to get to a Thanksgiving dinner. Being political refugees, as we are, the ingredients for a classic American Thanksgiving are few but we do have some potatoes that I could make into "mashed potatoes." No gravy. No stuffing. No turkey. But the potatoes have authentic lumps 🤣🤣🤣. Mom's recipe!  Hope everyone has a good holiday! And GO LIONS! (always root for cats❣️ and against billionaires who want public money to build a stadium when they RUINED the first one we gave them 🤣🤣🤣)"

on the night before Thanksgiving we had Chinese (I know it's a "Christmas tradition but hey...")

 

Then on Thanksgiving Day we  had dinner at Azotea- 

Then a nice walk home- 

Then we had dinner at La Casapuerta with Phil's teacher Natalia and her son Santiago. 

The weekend came and we went out for lunch on a beautiful blue sky day in the 70s - everyone else had the exact same idea! LOL - that day was the day scheduled for the holiday lights to be turned on. Many families were in the city center for the event. But that will be another post.