Christmas 2025

It’s time for the annual round-up of the Christmas celebrations. This year was the first one with Volya, so most of the pictures are with her. We had a lovely time and Volya played so much in the morning that she spent the next 11 hours sleeping under the bed. We checked on her a few times, as she was too tired to come for her lunch.

We’ve started by taking pictures in front of the tree and then we opened the gifts. Her gifts were the first so she had to divide her time between checking what we were opening and chasing her new toys.

A highlight was this T-shirt Volya got for my husband. I am not sharing all what we received, most are small gifts. I received a book I wanted and Georgian wine, which I am very happy with.

Volya’s gifts: a bird-toy from our holiday in June-July, a green paper-bauble toy from France (my husband got it during his last trip to France), a set of small tennis balls (for small dogs, but she loves them), xmas treats, food she likes, a can of food from Ukraine (which I got on my last trip to Ukraine), a hair mousse for cats.

This is the bird, she loves it. So far she walked with it around the living room a few times.

The French bauble is another one of her favourites.

Keeping an eye on us, while we were opening our presents.

We had a huge breakfast, so the roast was in the evening (hence the different light). At breakfast we had all kinds of vegan cheese (some local, all small businesses), bread made by a local baker (a wonderful woman), kimchi (made by another local business), and I made a 1970s looking salată de boeuf (bottom left in the picture below). For drinks we had a special English Heritage wine, a Polish spirit, and cherry juice (I think that was also Polish).

These are the cards I got for my husband and he got for me. They are so sweet, with Volya’s name on them. They are from the same Etsy seller.

How was your Christmas?