Christmas in Lisbon

We had a fabulous Christmas. B's parents came and joined us for the holidays and spent 2 weeks with us. We took vacation for a few days and traveled to north Portugal. We toured palaces, castles, monasteries, and convents. We ate delicious local dishes and pastries and explored new cities. Mostly, we enjoyed family time and a few days away to rest and relax and learn more about the culture. We went to an American Christmas party in Coimbra and another party hosted by another couple from our company here in Lisbon. We went out to dinner with our Portuguese friends and met several for coffee during the break.  Mom & Dad babysat for us so we could go out to a movie and get coffee one night. Yea for date nights!

We wanted to teach Eliana that it is better to give than to receive and that we should share with others the true meaning behind Christmas. To do this, we made goody bags for all of our neighbors in our apartment building (54 other units) and took her with us to deliver them to everyone. Eliana made some new friends doing this, and hopefully we did too.

We kept some of my family's traditions alive and started some new ones of our own that we look forward to continuing throughout the years. We made cookies for Santa and sat them out with a drink using our special Portuguese pottery we bought just for this purpose. We placed Santa's key outside the door of our apartment and turned on the ornament that sends him a signal so he can find our apartment. We sang Christmas carols and read Scriptures foretelling Jesus' birth while Jonathan played the piano. We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve after a nice dinner, as is the Portuguese custom; however, our meal was a typical Southern feast--complete with Mammaw's recipe for dressing and a pumpkin pie. We did have fresh cheese, olives, and tremocos on the table though as appetizers and a nod to our adopted country. 

On Christmas Day, we woke up and opened our Santa gifts and our stockings. Poppy Santa even made an appearance. We then had Christmas brunch. Afterwards, we read stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible. First one about Jesus' birth. Later in the day, we read the story about the shepherds visiting Jesus, and we sang more carols and played the piano. Still late in the afternoon, after a Christmas movie, we made cupcakes and read the Bible story about the wise men visiting Jesus and then had a little birthday party for Jesus. Of course, that night we sat down to play boardgames like always; however, we tried a new, tricky Portuguese boardgame we just bought. It's going to take us awhile to figure it all out.

So that's how we celebrated our first Christmas in Portugal--a mix of old and new traditions, a mix of the U.S. and Portugal.

You can watch a short video showing highlights from our Christmas by clicking on this dropbox link here.