The tradition continues

It's a family tradition that we spend Christmas eve with my in-laws. My mother in-law cooks a feast for all of us and we open all the Christmas gifts. What's most important is that each wrapping paper from opened gifts needs to be thrown all over the living room, just to hear my mother-in-law raising her voice and stating that who does that again will be washing the dishes. Both my in-laws and us were away last year, so it has been a long time since we had such evening.

The house of my mother in-law is completely transformed with all the decorations 

She even has a cute village set up

The gift giving takes a large part of the evening

Eating and drinking covers for the rest of the evening.

The compulsory Christmas turkey which was really juicy and delicous

The caramalised potatoes were really good

Did you notice that my in-laws have the picture of the Dwejra window in Gozo (Malta) in their living room? My Maltese influence is all around!

A cute photo of latest addition to the van Uffelen family.

My fiancee  deserved this kiss!

My nephew who was not very amused at being awake so late in the evening

The night was a success! The morning after it was quite difficult to get up for even more food and gift unwrapping!

Just the two of us

This year is the first year in my life in which I won't be spending Christmas in large numbers. This year I will be spending Christmas just with my boyfriend. This doesn't mean it won't be special. It will definetely be different but being happy isn't related to how many people you have around it but rather who you have around you. We have already come up with a big Christmas dinner which I believe will be enough to feed more than just the two of us.

This is the mouth watering menu:

An appetiser of goat cheese filled Portobello mushrooms
Followed by a courgette soup with gorgonzola
A main with honey glazed ham loin
And a chocolate fondant cake with cream and ice-cream

I'm looking forward to preparing this meal together on Christmas day.

Merry Christmas to everybody!

[Image Credits: Jessica Oleksa @ Pinterest]

A Christmas dinner to remember

The Christmas dinner was very sucessful. We managed to over feed a group of 8 people with only a few mis-haps, including a duck who didn't want to be eaten. We still believe it turned the oven off by itself.

What I learnt this Christmas is that 8 people can eat and drink a lot! Stuffing animals is fun and they taste delicious. Sorry for all the vegetarians out there!

Here's some pictures from the day

Stuffing the duck!

Me with my mum and mother-in-law

A small portion of the dinner table

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!

Wishing a day full of joy, food, friends and family.

I will be spending with my family and in-laws. The day will start by waking early to prepare a dinner for eight, followed by hours of eating and over stuffing ourselves. That's what's Christmas should be like. Wish my luck!!

My only wish would have been that my sister and her family were around as well!