Christmas Eve Dinner
On December 24, 2018 by brian.haferkampWe are staying in the home of some friends who live just outside of Lisbon. On Sunday we met some of their friends. This family lives on the other side of the city.
We also met the wife’s parents who were visiting for the Christmas holiday. They are from Shreveport, Louisiana. They’re very open and warm and the family invited us to have a traditional Southern Christmas dinner with them on Christmas Eve.
So that’s where we were last night. Another family friend, Katie, who lives France, joined us, as well as, Jack, a recent college graduate who was staying with their family for a few months.
The dinner was ham, mashed potatoes, greens, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn bread muffins, and stuffing. We had a mixture of American and Portuguese desserts. And lots of conversation.
It was really a nice time and our girls got to play with their girls (who are quite a bit younger).
Here are some photos from the night, included an obligatory silly photo 😜
In the spirit of sharing the humbling moments, I will tell you about getting gas for the car.
On our way to the dinner last night we stopped for gas for the first time. You would think things are simple, but they rarely are when you’re abroad.
Here is the gas pump and choices:
Seems simple enough, right?
Turns out it actually is. But I didn’t realize it until some trial and error. After assessing the situation (aka, freezing up when I didn’t know what do do) I tried the middle one but it didn’t fit the hole to the gas tank. It was too big. I almost thought maybe the nozzle just doesn’t fit like that in Portugal. I picked up the green handle just to check. That is the one because it has the smaller nozzle that fit our car.
Voila! It fits!
That keypad told me to go to the lady sitting in this booth and pay for the gas:
And just like that we were off–to get lost again. I’ve started to build in “getting lost time” if we need to be somewhere on a time schedule.
However, that might be a thing of the past. The family we had dinner with introduced me to an offline maps program you can find at http://maps.me. Just download the area you’re driving in and the app gives turn by turn navigation with no internet connection.
It worked on the way home. Here’s hoping our travels are a little easier. We’ve frequently lost our way and gotten frustrated with one another while driving. This is technology for a healthy marriage 😊