Santa found us in Tenerife

For the 7th year in a row, we celebrated Christmas away from home. Normally it was spent in Florida during my uni years, and again last year, Dubai in 2010 and this year we celebrated in Tenerife. It took me a long time to get used to a warm Christmas  it just never felt like the holidays. I remember spending Christmas day one year on the beach in Long Boat Key, Florida, and being so mad with my parents for not being at home in the cold! But as the time is passing, I'm getting more and more used to the warm Christmasses. Having said that, there really is no place like home at that time of year.
The most important thing, however, is spending it with your family and loved ones. I can't imagine not being with my parents and sister on the 24th and 25th. Last year, I had a few more people to juggle my holiday celebrations with, but this year it was just the 4 of us, in sunny West Africa.

As I had visitors up until the 19th, and had to work up until the 21st, I met my family already there on the 22nd. The first thing I was warned when I arrived was about the driving. My dad had rented a car and apparently had not yet got the hang of driving on the other side of the road with a stick shift, to add to the fact the roads were very windy and the traffic seemed to come from everywhere. (I've never before witnessed stop signs ON a roundabout!)

I landed just in time for the sunset and we headed for our "cottage." I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived!

I was a bit obsessed with these doors

The house was in the middle of a mountain; up really high, about a 7 minute drive to the beach. Some of the houses around were also beautiful! I could definitely see myself buying a home like that somewhere!!

I was only there for 5 days and to be honest, I didn't push myself to do too much. I had planned to do a couple of touristy things but after a very busy previous two or three weeks, I decided the best thing for me to do was rest..and that is exactly what I did. We spent most of the time by the pool at the house, doing a bit of Christmas shopping and exploring the local area.
It was real nice to be in a new place, and around every corner, we found new and interesting things! 
It seemed so much of the arcitecture had old andalusian  influences (quite similar to some places in FL) so it was really nice to take photos.

 The night of the 24th, we went to a Japanese restaurant for some amazing sushi. Well, I had the amazing sushi, the rest of my family think the idea of eating raw fish is disgusting. I did get my mum to taste it though...the other 2 decided against it. The restaurant was in one of the nicest (if not the nicest) hotel in the area...

10 year old girl pose

Sunsets

Relaxing!

Christmas Day

I just realized I barely took any pictures on Christmas day..probably because we pretty much stayed in our pjs all day and played with our presents!!

 Just chilling

These things normally TOTALLY freak me out (remind me of war movies or something!!) but they looked pretty cool that day

Dreaming... 

To dream is to live...

"Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men " - Von Goethe

Have a good weekend!