With two young children in a foreign country we will be staying at home most of the time. As Portugal has a very devout but gentle form of Christianity, it is a very special time here anyway. The region is historically poor where many of the skilled workers made it across the river to travel and find work in France (via Spain) during the bad times. Near our house is an old crossing point; unfortunately many people lost their lives trying to get across in days gone by. Anyway, to this day many of the people from here spend most of the year working in France so French, not English is the second / third language here (I say second / third as there is Spanish, but it is very similar to Portuguese). During high summer and then again Christmas / New Year, the "Immigrants" as they are called come home, so it is busy here; during the year their houses here are shuttered up. Being on the old pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, there are many religious ceremonies at Xmas (incidentally also the area has many Roman viaducts and buildings because of the importance of the route going back many years). There will likely be snow on the two mountain ranges we have views of from our house and the mornings / sun rises are at their most spectacular because of the river mists and mountain clouds, so tearing ourselves away from all this is hard anyway, especially as Christmas is silly season for hotel prices of course. The town centres will be lit up and will have a range of festivals and fireworks. As we live on the border and because Portugal is one hour behind Spain, we can celebrate New Year twice! I do not know if you have ever listened to the church bells of Portugal and Spain, they are very different to English speaking countries. In Portugal they sound like old special grandfather clocks, in Spain they are simple but very evocative repeating chimes. On the Spanish side of the river nearly opposite our house there is a small Franciscan Catholic Monastery and school With so many churches around us and the local festivals in town, it is a very musical time

I think we will be having a traditional (Portuguese) Christmas dinner with friends here.

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