Christmas

well, what to say about christmas.....

the in-laws came, JD's grandmom came over from Portugal as a surprise! and JD's dad brought lots of libations, and JD's mom came with a huge leg of lamb (i loooove lamb), and JD's brother came as well.

JD's grandmother coming as a surprise was lovely, JD is quite close to her and it's always good to see them together
for my part, i never had any grandparents of my own, so i have a strange tendency to adopt elderly people as the grandparent i never had.
and she is a pip. she speaks no french or english, i speak about ten words of portugese (but i'm understanding better and better)
but what i love about her is that she talks to me all the same. she looks right at me and smiles an talks and has an almost conversation with me. needless to say i've become an expert in the art of portugese nodding (which isn't the same as anglophone nodding) and saying the portugese eqivalent to "yes, right, uh huh, absolutely"

this is her doing some dishes: one thing for sure, portugese people roll up there sleeves and get right in it! no formalities really.














And the whole bunch (jd is taking the picture)
yes i know i look icky, i didn't feel like putting fouth much effort. and there you have it.














and last but not least the kitchy photo of manteiga and the christmas tree


and so what did i get for x-mas you ask?
HA!
remember in the blog entry about jd i wrote that he is much more generous than i?
well he got me a laptop. a super duper HP with wifi and the lot.
now i need to learn how to use it..... my computer skills are not the greatest.
and really, it order to do the present justice i need to learn how to use it to it's fullest.
so, i'm trying...
oh, and JD's grandmom gave me a table cloth ( a very pretty one and i was very happy to get it because stainless pretty tablecloths cost a fortune here)

and jd's bro gave me a wireless mouse to go with my new pc. cool huh?!