15-16th weeks - CHRISTMAS and NY in Portuguese way

Ola,

Believe me or not, everywhere Christmas is the same - Santa Clauses in the shopping centers at the end of October, discounts and comercial spirit around, streets decorated and Jingle Bells sounds touching ears dozen times per day.

Though there are some slight differences when celebrating Christmas Eve (CE) and Christmas in Lithuania and Portugal. First, noone understood when I had asked if they had 12 dishes for CE dinner and I did not understand what's so strange in this question. The thing is that the traditional dish for CE in Portugal is.. guess.. bacalhau:) and for dessert - king's or queen's cake. No herrings, no French salad (this is the name for 'lietuviska misraine' in Portugal), no kuciukai in poppy milk.

Second difference - Christmas trees, in Portugal they almost do not have natural Christmas trees or branches, they use plastic ones. In general, I am against natural Christmas trees as well, but to have a fresh branch gives a totally different smell at home.

Here in Portugal I had 6 chances to celebrate Christmas or Christmas Eve. Let's start from the beginning - you will find some really unusual moments:

1. 6 December - Christmas dinner with AIESEC ISCTE. Nice place, dinner with AIESEC alumni, members, exchanging gifts, playing ping pong, singing caraoke. Rather unusual, isn't it?;)
2. 9 December - Christmas dinner with flatmates. Christmas spirit with 'fire place', Christmas tree, Maroccan food, Portuguese wine, Portuguese TV show that was 'veeery funny' and secret Santa Clauses. Pretty unusual as well..:)

3. 14th December - Christmas lunch with colleagues at work. Going to the north from Lisbon to a very nice place near Tagus river, meating lots of colleagues from all over the country, enjoying sun and mandarines hanging on the trees, eating bacalhau or codfish, some typical Portuguese desserts, drinking really delicious wine, enjoying performance of some toy football coaches from Portugal (Portuguese are really crazy about football), and coming back with a Santa Clause bag of presents.

4. 21st December - Christmas bowling and clubbing with the colleagues of Rosane (intern in Braga). Something strange:)

5. 24th December - Christmas Eve with the family of Portuguese friend and my sister. A very nice evening preparing bacalhau with vegetables, mushrooms' soup, bringing some Lithuanian spirit with 'sakotis' and 'kuciukai', making sangria from champagne, exchanging small, cute gifts, watching Eurotrip till 4 a.m. This is what I really wanted - to experience Christmas Eve in Portuguese way, in a Portuguese family. Many many thanks for Goncalo for giving this chance;)

6. 25th December - Christmas UNO cards evening with friends in my appartment.

And New Year? Well, except spending it with 4 different nationalities (7 Romanians, 2Portuguese, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Brazilian), near the ocean, with the flowers' pot of sangria, eating typical dishes from different countries, dancing pimba, eveything else was pretty much the same as in Lithuania:))

A few learning points:
1. Pimba is a kind of Rytis Cicinas just in Portuguese and more dirty. This was the music that really made us dance during NY Eve:) More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimba

2. if you expect that cabbage rolls (balandelius) or potatoe salad (lietuviska misraine) you can find only in Lithuania or Romania or some other country and these are typical dishes of your country, you might be surprised...:) Cabbage rolls are the same both in Romania and Lithuania and very common potatoe salad is called both Lithuanian and French salad in different parts of the world.

3. If your do not have a pot to make 10 liters of sangria, the easiest solution is to go to the chinese shop and to buy a plastic pot for planting flowers:)

Warmest greetings with a piece of Portuguese sun and Lithuanian spirit for YOU – Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you:

THE ray of light that wakes you up every morning even when there is no sun outside,
THE snow flake in the air that makes you smile,
THE cup of coffee with an interesting person in a secret cafe,
THE present that you cannot hold but that brings warmest feelings,
THE song that fills up the mind an makes you dance like there is no tomorrow,
THE dream that you can share with your friends,
THE feeling of fulfilment and maturity inside.

I wish you to LIVE every moment of your life!

Buckiai, beijinhos, kisses:*
Ruti