Feliz Natal!!

---

Merry Christmas, Feliz Natal to everyone everywhere! I hope your holidays were well spent, seeing family and other loved ones 😊. I miss you all so much!
This blog is specifically for how my Christmas was spent, in the next one I will explain how my NEW YEARS EVE/DAY will be spent :D. I am excited to tell you how these two days were spent 😊.
Although it was a nice holiday, I did feel a bit lonely, and sort of out of place... it's a hard feeling to explain to all of you back at home, but I am doing my best here to learn and enjoy my experience here 😊.
First off, in Portugal, the 24th & 25th are mixed into TWO days sort, the party never seems to stop between those two days. On the 24th, we went to my mom's sister's house, and that part of the family (which is MUCH smaller than my host dad's family) was mostly there. It was a very late dinner because of the traditional foods that needed to be cooked: cod fish. We also had steamed vegetables, other sorts of meats, and LOADS of deserts (I nibbled on a few of them). We then traded gifts, the adults drank tea/cafe/wine, and then we left in early hours of the 25th. We then woke up LATE -- about 1 in the afternoon on the 25th, and decided to trade gifts between one another at home before taking off for the afternoon lunch with my host dad's family of about a million people haha! It was nice, all 8 uncles & aunts were there with their children, and then THEIR children, so about 4 generations of Miranda's were inside this home! They ate a lot of turkey, pig and vegetables and rice for lunch. They also had several "deserts" and drank some coffee/tea. As a "present", they gave me the head of the pig that they ate for lunch... yuck! It was all out of laughs though 😊. The young adult/adult cousins then did their secret santa trade off, and then played some music. Everyone was just laughing, talking and enjoying their special time together. We then finally left that party, and THEN had to go to another dinner with my host mom's family (My older host sister & I didn't go -- we were way too exhausted) which didn't last very long because everyone was so tired from past couple days haha! But it was well worth it... we got excellent sleep the next day 😊.
Anyway, I just wanted to share these traditions with you that they have here, although not the same, there were some similarities too -- LOVE and the happiness that everyone shares when they are together 😊.

Happy Holidays, talk to you all soon!
Claire

---