A spoonful of culture....

I'm sorry to say this, but it is true, I don't really feel like I have a culture. My roots trace back to 'hillbilly' on my dad's side and somewhere in England on my mom's side, but all in all I don't have a strong sense of personal culture. So when Paul and I started dating almost 8 years ago I was in amazement of his strong sense of culture and how fascinating it is! We now make sure our children also get a strong sense of the Portuguese culture, and this weekend was an important event in the Portuguese culture.

A majority of Portuguese are Catholic. During the summer each Catholic church takes a weekend (which lasts Thursday to Sunday) and has a festival or 'festa.' During these four days there is tons of food, dancing, music, a parade and mass. Money is raised for the church and people in the community come together to partake in the great activities.

Last year Alex was baby Jesus in the parade, and I tell you was the hit of the parade. This year Alex and Cierra were on the float of folk dancers dressed in traditional Portuguese folk dancing attire. Alex actually wore Paul's hat and sash that Paul wore as a child. After the parade Alex and Cierra performed with about 20 other children on stage doing some traditional Portuguese folk dancing. ADORABLE! It was very sweet and you better believe I got it on video!!

Even though Amelia was too little to participate in any of the events, she dressed the part and was so sweet in her outfit. She wore herself out running back and forth and watching all the events going on. Being an animal lover she was thrilled with all the livestock present.


One of the ways the church raises a lot of money is through an auction they have. The big ticket items at this auction are goats (like above) and cattle as well as Portuguese sweets and other random items. This year they were auctioning off some puppies and oh my, the kids fell in love with this dog. I was swayed for a moment because this dog had an awesome temperament. He was calm with all these kids petting him and when Alex sat down next to him he even laid his little head on Alex's lap. Alex really wanted to take him home but right now just isn't a good time for us to adopt a dog, maybe a little later down the road. He went home to a good place though, but I had to take one picture of Alex and Cierra with their little friend. Meanwhile, Amelia fell in love with a little Mini Pin and was even playing peek a boo with it! I am not sure how much longer we can deny these kids a dog....