... my dad putting that fabulous Christmas hamper on top of the table and the feeling of an inmense excitement before opening it...
When I was a kid, many friends related Christmas with presents. Like any other kid, I was looking forward to mine, of course, but if somebody had asked me then (or today) what Christmas really meant for me, the first words that would have come to my mind would have been Christmas food, no doubt!
My mum used to be a stay-at-home mum and I've recently started to realise how lucky I was, not just because I could always go to her when I had a problem, but because I was brought up with amazing Spanish home-made food (I'm Spanish and if you've ever been to Spain you will know how most of our culture evolves around family, friends and a table full of lovely food). There always was something cooking in the kitchen... literally, and this is probably why my childhood memories are filled with aromas of delicious dishes. When Christmas was near, my mum was already planning all the dishes she would cook for her big family. I appreciate now what a difficult job that was and how well she always did it (and still does!).
In Spain, Christmas is very well-known for all the special sweets people consume during that season. Polvorones, mazapanes, turrones are probably the best known and we don't tend to eat them during the rest of the year (this is probably why we are so looking forward to them at Chrismas). My dad always played a special rol when it comes to bringing these special food because every year he was given a hamper as corporate Christmas gift. At the beginning, the so called "hamper" was really a box... but after a couple of years they started to be proper Christmas hampers, beautifully wrapped and filled with all sort of sweets and delicatessen we could normally afford on special occasions: caviar, pâtes, cheese, pata negra Iberic ham...
I was little but that box or hamper, those aromas coming from the kitchen would make me feel an inmense excitement I find easy to remember even today.
