Post-Christmas Post! Happy 2013!

Well, the holidays are over and I think I have learned quite a lot about Portugal and the Portuguese this holiday season.  Here is a list, in no particular order:

1.  Many stores provide free gift wrapping when you buy things there.  The only downside is that you have to do it yourself and it's pretty obvious to the gift recipient where you bought it.  All the supplies are there, though!

2.  It seems impossible to buy Scotch tape in the stores.  I had to use a gluestick to seal my presents when I wrapped them.  Tape just seems less gloppy.

3.  The Portuguese are absolutely in love with those Santa Clauses that you can attach to the windows of your house so that it looks like he's having a hard time getting in and may be about to fall OFF the house.  I have never seen so many of that particular decoration before.  I find this strange.  I haven't seen any inflatable decorations, though!

4.  Lagos has a lot of roundabouts and the city decorated them all for the holidays.  They really looked nice, and now that the decorations are gone they look a bit bereft.  I'll get used to them, though.

5.  There are no pine trees here, so everyone either has a fake tree or does something else.  We decorated a lemon tree in the courtyard of the house where we were staying.  The ornaments didn't show up nearly as well as on a pine tree.

6.  Many of the same Christmas carols are sung here as in the US--and there is not even a HOPE of snow in this part of Portugal.

7.  Apart from the decorating of the roundabouts, I didn't see much of a "public" Christmas tradition here, except of course for the stores.  They got in on the action starting before Thanksgiving, even (although obviously the Portuguese don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so that's my own method of dating).  There weren't really many Christmas markets (although there were a couple of bazaars, but they only lasted about a weekend) and there is no glühwein either!  What is Christmas without mulled wine of some kind?  Of course, when it's warm, it seems less necessary, but I still missed it.

8.  There are no candy canes here.  I didn't eat one candy cane all year!  On a related note, there is no candy corn for Halloween either, which I'm sure is healthier for my teeth than in the US, where I can't resist it, even though it's pretty awful.  We'll see, come Easter, if there are any Cadbury Creme Eggs.  There are so many British people here, though, that perhaps there will be.  Another candy I'm better off without...

9.  There is no marshmallow fluff here.  I really dislike the stuff, but it's very hard to make fudge without it, though.  My fudge was absolutely disgusting and even I didn't like it much.  Fortunately for me,  my mom actually SENT me some (and some cranberry bread too) all the way from North Carolina!  Thanks, Mom!

10.   People eat bachalau (a particular cod fish dish) on Christmas Eve and turkey on Christmas Day, traditionally.  I'm in favor of the turkey but don't really like bachalau.  And no, I can't really describe how it's made.  Sorry!

Over Max's break we house/dog sat for some friends (I posted pictures of Pica in the last post), so we were able to cook Christmas dinner and have a fire.  Here are a few pictures that we took Christmas Eve while it was still light outside.  It was a bit strange because the tree was outside, since we decorated the lemon tree.  Then we took the presents inside to open them.  We did have a very nice Christmas, though!

Frank and Me on Christmas Eve by Max

Max by Me, Christmas Eve

Max

More of Max's Work

Max Under the Decorated Lemon Tree

You can see the decorations better in this one

Max Wishing It Were Time to Open Presents

Max With a Hole in his Smile and Frank Without One

Max and Me by Frank (it appears that I went a bit overboard on the eyeshadow)

Max and Me Kissing Under the Lemon Tree

After Christmas, we rented a car and went up to Lisbon for a couple of days.  On the way, though, we stopped at three beautiful towns--Evora, Marvau, and Castelo de Vide.  You may have seen these pictures on Facebook, but I am adding them here too.

This is Frank's "Cubist House."  

The "Chapel of Bones"

Marvau

Cathedral in Evora

Near Evora

In the Lisbon Botanical Garden

The Lisbon Botanical Garden

Lisbon Fishermen

Castelo de Vide

Near Evora

Monastery in Evora

The Tower of Belem, Lisbon

Max talking to the guys at the bar in Evora

In the estuary near Setubal

Vasco da Gama is in here!

On the road to Lisbon

Frank is the travel planner extraordinaire--he runs a very good tour service and we had a great trip!  The towns we stopped in on the way were beautiful and we had gorgeous weather.  The only bad weather was New Year's Eve in Lisbon, when it started to rain.  It was nice the next day, though, for our trip home and our stop at the estuary.  We didn't see any birds, though.  Lisbon is beautiful and very walkable, although it's large.  It's built on seven hills and has lots of little neighborhoods that we didn't really get to explore this time but hopefully we will be back there again soon.

We all hope that 2013 brings you all that you hope it will!

Houses, Boats, and Cars (oh my!)

18 December

We are dog sitting for some friends in Figuiera, which is a little village about ten miles outside of Lagos; it's also where Max's school is, so if school were in session we could walk there, which would be very useful considering the state of the car (more on that later).  In any case, Pica is a quirky Chihuahua (spelling?) who was a in a major snit when we first arrived.  Even though she knows us, we are not her people and she was definitely NOT impressed.  However, she recovered and let me take a few pictures of her.  Max bribed her with wet food (she was definitely NOT going to eat the treat I offered her) and she thawed out.  Then she decided that she likes sitting on Frank and has even decided that she would try to sleep in the bed with us.  I have a cold and since I was coughing so much last night I went and slept in the kids' room.  She was already in the bed, so I didn't kick her out.   Chihuahuas can take up a lot of room when they want to!

Pica being annoyed that the paparazzi have found her

Mug shot (profile)

Trying to sweet talk the photographer

It's really nice having the space of the house--we can even be in separate rooms if we want to--but the nicest thing is being the only people who ever use the bathroom.  Frank is also very pleased to be able to take a bath again.  Max actually took two baths in twelve hours, but he said he didn't use soap the second time.  In any case, here are a few pictures of the house, although if I had really had my act together I would have picked up all our clutter first.

The kitchen window, stove, and dishwasher

Courtyard with cluttered table, lemon tree, and outdoor fireplace.  There are no Christmas trees in Portugal, so we'll decorate the lemon tree.

Messy kitchen table

The only downside is that the washer is very quirky, which means that it is taking me an average of 2.5 days to do a load of laundry.  To be fair, what takes a lot of time is waiting for stuff to dry, but I do miss our absolutely not-state-of-the-art-but-free washer and dryer on Behan Street.  However, this is a quibble, really.

Living room

Master bedroom and door to bathroom

Loft bed with quilt hanging down (Max sleeps here).  I don't know if you can see the railing, but he can't fall out.

Bea and Vasco's room (they are the kids who actually live in the house)

Looking out the door of the kids' room into the hallway

Courtyard with outdoor table and lemons hanging in the foreground

We've been on two hikes around here since we've been here.  Jade loves to hike and would be so happy in a house with lots of space for her to run around.  Yesterday's hike was especially interesting because we had to break through the bamboo and the briars to get to the trail we needed.  It was frustrating because we could see it but couldn't get to it and it was starting to get dark.  We did finally make it, though.  Max was a terrific hiker and never complained.  Jade, of course, was ecstatic.  Here are a few pictures from our hikes:

Toadstools

Looking down from the cliff

Approaching the cliff

This looked like a fairy mound to me.

Happy happy dog

On the way home--beautiful light!

Cool-looking rock (Frank took this one)

Some sort of ruin that you can see from  just outside the house

Heading back to the village.

Max checking for enemy forces

Max looking like a movie star

The toothless wonder!

This last picture brings me to my next major event:  after being loose since June, Max's top right tooth FINALLY fell out, so now he's got a rectangular hole in his head.  I'm guessing it will be a while before another one comes out, as Max's teeth tend to take their own sweet time doing anything.  They didn't arrive quickly and they aren't falling out quickly either.  That's OK, though, because each lost tooth makes him look just a little bit too much older.

Now the bad news:  Jade, unfortunately, is still looking for a home with more space.  I so hate to see her go, but she really needs to be somewhere where she can run around and chase the birds.

The other piece of very bad news is that our cute little convertible has a cracked head gasket.  We aren't sure yet whether we'll have to junk the car or not, but we are hoping to be able to find a used part.  New ones are apparently very, very rare, as it's a very rare engine.  In any case, we are out in the country without a car, so it's a bit inconvenient, but we will make it work.  There are buses, of course, and Figuiera isn't very big, so it's not as if we are stuck.

The weather has been nice--not nearly as windy out here as it was in Lagos just before we left.  Max is still playing soccer three times a week (or will be again in January),  I videoed his end-of-term performance but it's a big file, so I have to figure out how to get it out.  Maybe I'll break down and try YouTube.

In any case, that's about it from here!  We hope you all have wonderful holidays!