Spending my first Christmas away from home
A very different Christmas this year
We’re well into December and Christmas is fast approaching, but it’s a very different holiday season for me this year.
This will be my first Christmas apart from my family, which is very bittersweet. Having family that is spread out all over Australia, Christmas is normally the one time of year we can all get together and spend a week or two together. I know that so many people aren’t able to spend Christmas with their loved ones, so I’m very grateful that I normally can. I feel incredibly lucky to have a great family who genuinely love spending time together (for the most part), so it’s always a special time of year. Even though it’ll be sad not to be with them, it’s lovely to think that I have something so wonderful to miss.
On the other hand, I’m also super excited for a different type of Christmas this year. It’s my first white Christmas, although we’ll be in south Portugal on Christmas day so there’s basically zero chance of snow. It’ll also be Nelson and my first Christmas together as we normally spend the holiday with our respective families in different parts of Australia. We’re lucky to have made some wonderful friends who have invited us along to spend Christmas with them and some of their friends and family in South Portugal. It’ll be fun to see how other families do Christmas and experience some new Christmas traditions.
Weekly update
Another fortnightly update again this week, and they’ve been a busy couple of weeks!
Christmas festivities kicked off in Portugal and we went to the opening night of the local Christmas season in Portimão which was lovely.
We’ve also been enjoying the gorgeous beaches near where we’re living, although it has definitely gotten too cold to swim now.
Last weekend was a super fun one. We did a fabulous boat trip around the cliffs near Lagos, went to the Portimão museum, which used to be a sardine factory, and went to visit our friends in a nearby town that has some famous Saturday markets.
We’ve also become friends with some Kiwis down here, who had friends of theirs visiting from London, and we had a couple of great nights out in Lagos with them.
Lots of crochet is still being done, although Nelson’s first attempt at a beanie resulted in him looking like an egg (see photo below).
Also a special shoutout to the best buffet I’ve ever been to. If you ever find yourself in Portimão please do yourself a favour and go to Good Wok. It’s the best value buffet you’ll ever have in my humble opinion (it had a chocolate fountain!!).
We’ve had an awesome three and a bit weeks in Portimão and are planning on coming back in January for another couple of months. In the meantime, we’re off to Germany and Poland for the next 10 days to freeze our butts off, but hopefully also visit some cute Christmas markets and see some snow! We’ll then be back in Portugal for a few days for Christmas before popping over to South Spain. This’ll be the last newsletter until we’re back in Portimão, so wishing everyone a lovely Christmas break!
Thanks to everyone for following along on our adventures via this newsletter this year, and can’t wait for more next year! xoxo