Christmas and New Year
I had an excellent and packed holiday, with lots of wonderful small and big events. I watched Rita and Inês' school Christmas, had Christmas dinner with all my family, and a bunch of cool presents -- including a big book of "Mafalda" cartoons from my sister Filipa. On Boxing Day I picked Cristen up from the airport with my dad and Rita, Inês and Lourenço.
Poor Cristen didn't get much rest, but I think we both had a fantastic time. We went to Spain to visit Antia and Carlos in Santiago and stopped in Porto along the way. We went to Sintra and saw pretty palaces and castles. We partied all night on New Year's day. She taught my little brothers the traditional, but polite, Canadian sayings of "see you later, alligator" and "in a while, crocodile".
| Christmas with the Family It is usually quite hard to get all of us in a single place at the same time, but on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we managed! Now, if I could only figure out the self-timer in my camera! |
| Santiago.Me, Cristen, Paulo, Teresa and Manuel went all the way up to Santiago to visit Antia and Carlos. We stopped in the walled city of Valença, which faces Tuy in Spain and has a neat Fire museum. In Santiago, we saw the cathedral, walked along many narrow streets, and had lots of excellent tapas, all guided by local experts Antia and Carlos. Tapas are a good excuse to extend dinner and the conversation all night! Unfortunately, Manuel and Paulo had run down my camera batteries by then. On the way back, we stopped in Porto and visited the Bolsa. |
| Sintra. Sintra is the ancient retreat of Portuguese nobility and Englishmen. We enjoyed the green valleys, palaces and a moorish castle. The quiet seclusion was a great contrast to starting the New Year at Expo, a man-made cement landscape with a different kind of beauty. Sintra's more habitual visitors, must have been surprised by Cristen, Manuel, Lourenço, Rita and Inês... a wandering riot anywhere! |
| Mira Rio Christmas Show Mira Rio is the school that Rita and Inês go to. They put on a nice Christmas show where Rita did a a dance and sing-song dressed as mistletoe and Inês was in play. The pictures were taken in a school auditorium and are a little dark. |