We’ve been in Nazaré for 12 days now, enjoying ourselves and settling in. The apartment building is a bit run down on the outside but the inside is clean and comfortable.

We’ve been spending a lot of time inside due to weather and coronavirus precaution, so playing lots of games, lego building, doing crafts, reading and watching tv shows when we aren’t doing school.

Steffen and I have tried to continue to run regularly, sometimes through heavy fog and sometimes catching some beautiful views. There is a large enclosure for reindeer along one route, so that’s those photos. They aren’t really out in the open despite appearances.

One evening we rushed down to the beach to catch the sunset. We arrived just as it was setting and a downpour came! Great memories!

When the rain stops, the girls run out as quickly as possible to hit some tennis balls. Hannah and Charlotte especially love it and have a competition on how long they can volley against the wall.

We headed to a nearby mall one evening to do a little Christmas shopping and found a beautiful tree!

And to celebrate the beginning of vacation, we made “Christmas” cookies yesterday afternoon. We are working with limited supplies so they don’t look very Christmas-y, but we had a lot of fun! A great kick off to two weeks off.

We have enjoyed our first two weeks here and look forward to the next three. And we have already decided to stay in Portugal until the end of January; we found another great apartment to rent in southern Portugal. We hope everyone is enjoying this (different than usual) holiday season!