Our visas have been approved

We went into Alicante twice this past week, going to a place that could possibly give us information on our visas.  When we went on Wednesday, they said they were out of "numbers" and weren't taking anymore people for the day.  We peeked in at the waiting room and it was full of people.  So, we left and decided to go back on Friday.
On Thursday, Guillermo mixed some bug killer together and got up on a ladder and sprayed the nice big palm that is in front of this house.  He did that because we noticed some dead beetles on the ground underneath it and there's a big problem here in the Alicante area with those palm beetles.  We didn't want anything to happen to the palm, so Guillermo sprayed it carefully in the middle, so that it would seep down inside.  That took up most of the morning.
On Friday, we didn't leave as early as we wanted to, and sure enough by the time we got to those offices, the line to get numbers was really, really long.  We got number 50 and they were on like number 3.  So, we took our place on those chairs along with everyone else and waited.  We waited for over 2 hours before our number was called.
When we sat down with the guy and told him what we wanted, he checked on his computer and sure enough, he found information that our visas had been approved on Monday!  He also told us that Madrid had not received any requests for visas from Houston until this past August!  16 months after we turned them in.  That was not good to hear.  But anyway, they are approved now, Madrid has to send them back to Houston, and somehow or another, we need to get those visas in our hands.  We had been told by Houston that if we went on to Spain, they would mail us the visas when they came in, so we're hoping that is correct.

Today, Saturday, I decorated this house for Christmas.  One strand of 100 colored lights, and 2 snowflakes.  That's it.  We don't really want to go buy a lot of decorations or a tree for the little amount of time we'll be here, so a tree had to be fashioned.  It's really just two tall candle holders on either side of a wine rack.  The lights are all draped around this and the two snowflakes are sitting among the lights on the wine rack.  It's better than nothing, and having the lights up - no matter what they're on - just makes it seem more like Christmas.  Also, Christmas music started today!  :-)  So, here's our "tree".

And another view.  Just could not take a picture that wasn't blurry.