Its over again

Well Christmas has once again been and gone!! How fast was that. All the hype, running around like loonies, the preparing and everything else that sent us mad.............But it was fun wasn't it. I wouldn't have it anyother way.

We have all the Christmas festivities at Mum and Dad's. It starts on Christmas Eve, my brother and his wife who live overseas (currently in Sri Lanka) were here too. Though this year my sister and her family were at her inlaws as they too celebrate on Christmas Eve. We have a special dinner, I would say this tends more to the Swiss side. A fondue with special sauces, dried fruits and nuts, a salad and a few other yummy bits and pieces, not to mention lots of Bubbly. We then open our pressies and towards the end of it all, usually midnight-ish we try to fit in a coffee and some of those yummy cookies.

 Christmas Day we have a simpler day, Rose (my sis) her DH and the kids mid morning  and we do the rest of the Pressies with them. We then have a much simpler lunch, this tends to lean more towards the Spanish(mum) side. Starters is Huevos Rellenos (translation- filled eggs, a tomato, tuna and boiled egg filling). Main is some Spanish ham (Jamon) and smoked ham, spanish chorizo (the cured variety), spanish tortilla and a salad. Then coffee served with some Turron(Spanish nougart) and of course the cookies. (I'll get some food photos next year!!)

The rest of the day is usually spent playing cricket playing with the kids or just plain out doing nothing.

Then on Boxing Day we do it all again!!. This year there were 24 of us, as we don't have any 'real' extended family here, we do have some friends that are close it. We have been celebrating Boxing day with them for as long as I can remember. And on this day we do the Turkey!! Mum makes the bestest Turkey and filling in the world...........well we think so!! My brother is in charge of basting while the rest of us prepare all the other yummy things.  Then the everyone relaxes, watching or playing cricket or both, or just relaxing with a glass of bubbly.

So that is Christmas with me, 3 days of festivities, family and food and I love it. I hope  yours was special too.

Now I'm one holidays from one job, that gives me a little sewing time, which I

am off to do now. Might do a little project first and then I may work on my Butterfly Garden quilt for a bit.

See you all in the New Year.

Have a wonderful New Years, stay safe, and above all Enjoy.

 

Counting Down.....

Only a few more days to that wonderful day we know as Chistmas. Why do so many thngs need to be done BEFORE that day?? We have a whole year to do things, but no, it has to be done BEFORE Christmas.

No matter, I'm as guilty as the next person, but for some reason all this hype makes me Happy.

I work in 2 areas (a checkout chook at a supermarket & at a Post Office) and I can assure you they are both absolute mayhem at this time of the year.

My life at this time of the year is no different, I've been busy too. I managed to do 2 stitcheries for swaps,

this one for my Patchwork group CottonTales our theme this year was Santa's Helpers.

It's a Natalie Bird Design that I rearranged.

This one was for the swap at my local shop Foothills Fabric and Threads.

It's from a stamp I had, I don't know where it got to, but I blew it up ages ago with the intention of doing a stitchery one day!

We've managed to put up the Christmas Tree, decorations and lights,

and I mustn't forget the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

I bought this Manger when we were on our honeymoon in Europe 21 years ago.

My Grandma gave us some money as a wedding gift and I wanted to buy something special,

back then you couldn't find a decent manger scene here so that was what we bought.

I tuck it into the fire place with some lights put some real straw around it, i'll get to that this week..... I hope.

As our family is very multicultural (Swiss dad, Spanish mum, Dutch my hubby's family, my sister is married to Polish/Czech, brother is married to Japanese) we try have a few different Chirtmas traditions. My family do Christmas Cookies as one our traditions. We spend an entire day baking a few weeks before, we turn on the Christmas carols to get right into the spirit of things, the kitchen starts to smells amazing and we have loads of fun.

Here is Rose, my sister with a load of  Totenbainli (Dead Men's Bones) dough.

Dad and Julia grinding up some nuts, and Hermi a close family friend who has been part of our family for years doing the Aniseed cookies

Mum and Rose shaping the Aniseed.

And after an entire day of baking this is the final result.

At the back left to right

Dead men's Bones(hazelnut and cinamon), Aniseed, Chocky(dark chocolate and almond),

Mailanderli(lemon and butter cookie), front Cinamon stars(Almond and cinamon), Coconuts(Coconut and almond)

 

Wishing you all a Happy, Blessed, Peacful and Memorable Christmas with those you love.

I've been Busy

Yep, I've actually done a little sewing. Life has been busy as well, work takes up too much time, but it's something that must be done.

I'm a lot behind in blogging, and have things to show and tell you,

 I'll do it gradually over the next few weeks.

I must begin with my Mother-in-Law Helen. She turned 80 2 weeks ago. She's had an incredible life and to celebrate her 80th year the family got together to celebrate. I would just like to mention that Helen has 9 children, 20 Grand kids and so far 4 Great Grand kids!  It was a wonderful day.

It was also a chance for everyone to meet the lastest addition to the family, Paige. Paige is our great niece and lives in Queensland, so we won't see her very often. Here she is with Laura. Isn't she cute!

Here is a Mrs Perkins, I had a wonderful time making her for Paige.

She came out really wonderful.

Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever you may be doing.