Before anything else, I hope you had a great Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a great start of 2016!
I sure had and still recovering from these past weeks!
Ever since moving to Tulips’ country, Christmas got a new meaning. A moment to gather with family (like always) but enjoying even more all our Portuguese traditional foods, even though away from home.
Throughout the years, many suitcases have been filled with so much food, sweets, wines, cheeses, breads, cakes and many other things that I simply cannot find in NL. Luckily, no customs within EU.
As an expat, the small things make the difference. I don’t need a fancy or expensive gift, as long as I can have my loved ones nearby while enjoying some delicious comfort food made with love. Sounds cheesy and cliché, but it’s the truth.
I enjoyed preparing everything (with my mom’s and man’s help!) in order to welcome our guests during the Holidays. It could have been a lot easier on us to just get a bunch of pre-cooked food, but then it’d miss all the love and care we always like to offer our guests. Yeah, it was a lot of work but totally worth it! I will do it all over again!
In the end, these are the moments that we carry with us in our last seconds in this planet. The moments we shared with those who mean to us, and mostly, those moments are along side a dinning table.
2015 was a year full with ups and downs; people came in and out of my life, I got disappointed at some, others made my darkest days felt like nothing happened. I did things I longed to do for a long while, I took better care of myself. I laughed. I cried. All the things we all do all the time.
For 2016, I am sure most of these will happen again; that’s life. But what I do hope, is that in between all the daily craziness, we all have time to enjoy life, take even better care of ourselves, live and laugh as much as we can, and try with all we’ve got to do what makes us happy. Because before you know it, the party is over.
Long story short: Live the now the best way you can! Make 2016 a year you’ll always remember as a good one!
I am starting now!
See you soon!
