Christmas 2024

As per tradition, I will share a few highlights from our Christmas, this year. I already talked about the Christmas tree, but I’ve included a picture of it again.

Following the tradition, we both got each other 25 gifts, one for each day.

This year I picked a lot of socks, from Ukraine (the avocado and the shooting ones), a fun pair with his name, and some from the Tower of London (when we visited earlier this year). I also got some treats, a big mug that he loved when he saw it in the shop (from Ukraine), some candles, some tea, 2 T-shirts (again, from Ukraine). One of the most impressive things was the puzzle. I’ve designed the puzzle and ordered it from Ravensburger, in it there are desserts we’ve had this year.

My husband went with books, lots of books, which is something I am very happy about. He also bought funny socks (from Ukraine), which I love, soaps, crisps from France (he got them on his last business trip to France, when I was in Ukraine), 2 mugs from Ukraine. On top of that he got me some Georgian wine in a gorgeous ceramic bottle. It is just amazing, I loved it. Also, for Christmas I received a make-your-own whiskey set, which I had no idea it exists and I love the sound of. As the books were given for advent, I already read 2 of them!

Now, for food. These are the starters, all vegan: pigs in blanket, cold cuts, cheese, houmous, vol aux vents – tuna, nudja, aubergine caviar, Romanian salad with mayo.

For main we had a Romanian dish with polenta. The top was covered in tomato sauce which was charred and it was just delicious.

This is the Georgian wine. It was very good, I enjoyed it a lot. Now the bottle was transformed into a vase. My husband cut the top and that was it.

Desserts are very important, as you can see. I like making a big plate with all sorts of desserts. I just took out only a few pieces from the freezer, so we didn’t feel compelled to overeat (more than we did).

On the plate are French biscuits – Navettes aux Provence, cheesecakes and macarons (the colour combination was intentional), Turkish delight with hazelnuts, homemade marzipan trees, fudge, halva (2 types), chestnuts glace (French as well).

The Navettes are dry biscuits which are shaped as small boats, made for Candlemas, especially in Marseille. It is a biscuit that was created by Monsieur Aveyrous in 1781.

We also had a mini Yule log, a small Christmas pudding, and a mince pie. Of course, as you can see, there were a few “bottles” of chocolate with alcohol too.

We had a lot of desserts, so instead of roast, which we postponed for the following day, we had Christmas themed buns. This was a very light dinner, which we enjoyed a lot.