Back in Seattle a few months ago, Anna had given us some American Christmas gifts so we could think of them while being so far away. Christmas Day started off with us opening the festive special ‘Gingerbread Coffee’ and ‘having a brew’ down on the beach outside the pad.

After the festive drinks, it seemed only right to start our Greek Christmas Day with a swim in the sea.

At some point we started to get hungry, so returned home to have a breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice and boiled eggs (served in Aunty Jenny’s Father Christmas Egg Cups), alongside more gingerbread coffee and Greek Christmas cakes which happed to also be gingerbread flavour and very delicious!

Feeling well fed, we returned to the beach for pressies and chatting with the family on text, calls and FaceTime.

And of course, some swimming and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters, which were an inviting 18°C.

The sunshine and swimming all worked up a good hunger, so we returned to the sunny balcony to warm up and have a non traditional Christmas lunch of pizza, feta and filo pastry and oranges!

It’s been a bit of a Christmas tradition for a long time that we go rock climbing on Christmas Day, so eventually we decided that we should unpack the gear and try a climb for the first time since arriving here.

After passing by a busy sector, we found solitude at an aptly named crag called ‘Peace Cliff’ and climbed several quality climbs – shirts off in the baking sunshine!

We climbed until the sun left the cliffs, which gave us time to get up three routes.

As the sun set and the cliffs glowed orange, we walked down through the woods, where flowers were in bloom on the side of the path.

After another hot shower to freshen up, we prepared a Christmas feast together, consisting of Fajitas and a bottle of red wine that the local supermarket check out lady gave us for free as we’d spent €100 in her store when we arrived! Anna’s American Christmas chocolates that we’d saved also went down very well as dessert.

All that was left to do was take a moonlit walk along the waters edge. A swim was tempting, but Boxing Day is the official ‘full moon’ so we returned still cozy and warm to our bed…

Happy Christmas 2023…