Family Snippets

Na nossa infância tivemos um Natal Português tradicional com grande influência dos costumes e tradições do norte de Portugal, os nossos avós são oriundos de Trás-os-Montes e do Porto. O  Presépio  é a atividade principal de Natal, lembramos da história da natividade com a preparação para construir o presépio. É uma actividade emocionante; procurar o musgo, construir os estábulo, colocar as figuras e cenário da cidade de Belém... or a nossa propria cidade, a mãe lembra que na sua infância a construção do presépio era um projecto de vários dias. Na cidade de  Coimbra  meus pais visitavam vários presépios da cidade em exposição em área publicas da cidade.  No dia 24 Dezembro, véspera de Natal, à noite, têm lugar a consoada , nesta serve-se  bacalhau cozido  (ou para os menos tradicionalistas hoje em dia o  bacalhau com natas ) e a doçaria conventual, rabanadas, sonhos, arroz doce, bolo rei, etc. Nessa noite lemos as escrituras, contamos histori...

This Christmas I hope that as decorations go up and traditions unfold, the right opportunity emerges for us to remember with our family, that Jesus’s birth was real, that His birth allows us to experience perfect joy. I also hope that this year we might be able to use the power of words, written or spoken, as a gift to express love and be more Christlike by following His example and teachings.

As parents we used in our day to day vocabulary two Portuguese words more often than any others, recently I have been thinking why? In spite of being two very distinct words, they seemed to serve always an identical purpose or objective, at least for us they conveyed similar meaning as we raised our children. Cuidado - A word to warn us that ahead are obstacles or challenges that can be prevented if precautions are taken along the way, a form of showing concern and care, of calling our attention for something important, of being thoughtful and aware of how precious life is . Calma - A word that invites to slow a little to avoid problems that can be encountered if we rush too fast into things, a sister word of tranquility and peace. At first it might seem these words imparted a sense of fear or lack of confidence in what lays ahead, but as I look in retrospective as a parent, they meant exactly the opposite, we used them because we really saw the opportunities o...