Christmas 2023

Christmas 2023, a quick update from me detailing the gifts and food we had.

I will start with the gifts. These are mine. I love the marble chess, it was bought from an antique shop. I noticed it in the window and my husband went to buy it a few days later. We are picking now a new table for the chess set that will fit nicely in the living room.

I love the little Wedgwood cup too. This is too from a antique shop. I love these Jasper cup. I am also very found of the “Reading is my Therapy” mug too. I can say I collect mugs as I have loads, which I am using. The Oriel College history book was on my list of things to get, but my husband got it for me before I did. With an almost 700 years history, the book is rather long, as expected.

For my husband I got things he likes, like the truffle oil set, a shaving bar, the chocolate he likes, tea, and, the best ones were a scarf with his initials (I blurred them) and a specially made cufflinks set with his initials (I blurred those too, obviously). I am very happy with how both look and he loved them.

This funny gnome with boobs is an impulse purchase from Wales. We saw them in a gift shop in our trip to Wales earlier this month and thought these gnomes were hilarious. So, I bought one on my own. After we came back, my husband said that we should have bought a gnome because it was funny, so he was very happy to see that I did get one.

I got for my husband a Saint Javelin T-shirt last year and this year we’ve decided to get matching T-shirts. We were very happy and we will wear them again and again, of course. I am wearing quite often my Saint Javelin or NAFO T-shirts, even at university. The only one I am not taking to university is the “russian warship go fuck yourself”, but the rest are appropriate.

Now food. I made this spirulina wreath bread and it turned out beautifully. I didn’t add any food colouring. It’s all in the food supplement. In the bowl is beetroot houmous, again, without any food colouring. We also had avocado houmous.

I got three types of cheese, vegan chorizo, two types of chutneys.

We also had a mix of olives and two types of no-pigs in blankets.

For main we had purple carrots, parsnip, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gravy, and a no-lamb roast. The roast was made by a local vegan business. It was lovely and very well made. We also got a no-ham roast for later.

We had a mix of pickles. I had pickle okras because I love them so much. We also had pickled watermelon, gherkins, and green tomatoes.

For dessert we had a chocolate cake from M&S, quite big, and we had tried some of the gifts we had. I also baked a Cozonac (sweet loaf filled with Turkish delight and cashew – usually it is made with walnuts, but had none, so I used cashew instead).

How was your Christmas?