natjtan The tree is up! Some elf decorated it the other night *cough* that’ll be me. However it doesn’t feel like Christmas. For me, Christmas is a time of year when it’s cold, it gets dark around 4pm and the sun might shine. Celebrating festivities in an adopted country never feels quite the same. For starters, Christmas cake in Spain is a panattoni not a fruit cake laced with brandy. The sun shines, it’s warmer, gyms and cinemas are open. Traditions morph into some sort of festive hybrid. There’s magic but it’s a different sparkle.
My Christmas Eve magic started with a 30 minute Yogaglo flow followed by a cold 8km run along and on the beaches. Icy toes and fingers for the first 5 minutes until my central heating system kicked in and then toasty fingers and toes. The cold season’s arrived. It’s always a great feeling beating the cold running! Just avoid wearing cotton. It doesn’t wick away sweat easily leaving you damp and cold. Just like our apartment. In my family nearly every Christmas the water heater blew so much my Dad kept a stock of spare elements. Our AC bust and the earliest someone can come out is Monday. Luckily we have a portable radiator. Some traditions never die!
Christmas Eve Run
However you celebrate the holidays, I wish you a great time! Enjoy the treats. Enjoy the magic! Stop and take a moment in from the crazy, even if you’re working (I never minded working over Christmas. The atmosphere was always relaxed). Paul and I cycling back last night, stopped off along the beaches to look up at the stars. Most places had closed early and hardly anyone was about. Everything seemed so calm, the sea, the traffic and the stars twinkling. All that was missing was snow.
Happy Christmas! I’m off to the gym!
Wow, this post echoes exactly what I felt during Christmas here in Colombia. As festive as it was, it was a different festive. People drank in the streets and lit fireworks. And, there was definitely no snow. I wore a tank-top all day. Hope you’re having a great holiday season!
The best thing about traveling or even better living in other countries is seeing how others celebrate the exact same holidays. Same idea, completely different result! Hope you had a holiday season in sunny Colombia. It must have felt odd seeing a decorated Christmas tree at the start of summer!
Have a wonderful Christmas Natalie. It would have been so nice to have everything so calm and serene!
~Carl~
Thank you! I hope you had a great Christmas too!