First Christmas in Portugal

December started just perfect to kick off the holiday season. The weather was sunny and comfortable but much cooler with a high of only 13C/55F. Perfect weather for a visit to the Estremoz Saturday market to look for holiday trinkets. This market always has a huge supply of antiques and vintage items, however, on this visit, and just in time for the holidays, nativity scenes were in abundance.

Typically, we would start the holiday season the day after Thanksgiving but we’ve decided to kick off our holiday season on December 1st. Although I love the holiday season, honestly, I think an entire month of Christmas (cookies, movies, music) is enough for me. I can only listen to Andy Williams singing ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ so many times before I start to disagree with him.

I love being outdoors this time of year. Although it’s not super cold, there’s a crispness in the air that’s just so invigorating. My attire for my wake-up walk (Wake-up Walk) now includes several layers of clothes and boots to keep my feet dry from the wet grass; but I can’t imagine a better way to start my day. I survey the yard, making notes of what’s changed. Although the changes in nature here are subtle; some leaves falling; some not; the position of the sun slightly shifted; the stars and planets brighter; there’s this sense of winter approaching.

This will be our first Christmas in Portugal. We shipped over a few boxes of holiday ornaments from the U.S. I haven’t seen these ornaments for two years so unpacking took a lot of time as I was reminiscing and getting reacquainted with our holiday decorations. The cats kept busy with all the packing material which distracted them from playing with all the ornaments.

We left behind a lot of ornaments when we sold our Tybee Island Georgia home since star fish and sea shells just wouldn’t work here. After a lot of evaluation, I decided to get a fake tree. We’ve had fake trees for years since we’ve been living in warmer climates for the past decade. I love a real tree, but since we decorate early in December, a tree carcass would be all that’s left by the time Christmas arrived. Fake was the only way to go; but of course I want a fake tree that looks real. Growing up in the 70’s, we had a fake tree most years since my parents were neat freaks. Our tree did not even try to look real. It knew it was fake and wore it proudly. The massive amount of shiny silver tinsel we piled on guaranteed no confusion for the real thing. I found my fake at Casa Evora. It took me a few hours to unpack and unfold all the branches but it was worth it.

I think it looks beautiful, especially when it’s lit up with 1000 tiny little lights.

I decided to place the tree in the middle of the front sliding doors so you can see it from the outside as well. Something to distract drivers passing by from texting.

These are the double sliding doors that most people mistake for our front door; but it’s not. The front door is a little further down the walking path. I’ll leave it to the landscape architect we plan to hire to figure out how to direct people to continue walking past the double doors (after admiring the tree of course) until they get to the actual proper front door entrance.

We also decorated a table top tree with food related ornaments. We’ve done this for many years and typically keep it in the kitchen for obvious reasons. This year it’s been relocated to the dining room since we don’t have a proper table for it in the kitchen. I’ll make sure it finds its way back to the kitchen next year.

For our first year here, I’m keeping it simple. A few other decorations and that will do it.

However, before wrapping up my holiday planning, I need to make sure Blair has something to wear for Christmas Eve. Since he meows a lot, I thought making him a choir boy would be appropriate. He completed his fitting this weekend (my basic sewing skills at work) and will wear it briefly on Christmas Eve.