I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a lovely Christmas (actually it isn't over yet, since we celebrate first and second Christmas day in the Netherlands), we went to mass on Christmas Eve (and afterwards ate our traditional rice pudding with cherry sauce) and had family over for dinner on Christmas Day. Frank and I took the kids to their father this morning, where they will stay until New Year's Day. We will miss them, but we also cherish our time together. We are going to my mil for dinner tonight, picking up Frank's brother Maarten on the way there.

Cassandra and I made our first gingerbread house ever.  I baked and stacked the gingerbread parts (and made a mistake when cutting out the parts, but was able to make the house anyway, you can see it in the pictures) and she did all the decorating. Cassandra is very creative like that! Frank and I had fun watching her having fun decorating the house.
Cassandra and I also baked a lot of cookies, 349 to be precise. We also made coconut ice (54 pieces) and chocolate peanut clusters (55 pieces). We always give them for Christmas presents to a few selected people and eat lots ourselves ofcourse.  I will freeze part of the cookies for the coming weeks.

Here are some pictures:
work in progress

cookie production

Cassandra at work

our gingerbread house in all its beauty 

all the goodies together

I never thought I would hear Cassandra say "I don't want to see any more icing" , since she has a real sweet tooth. It has been a kind of overkill over the last couple of days, I've said myself "I think we've used enough icing sugar for the whole year".
But in a sense it fits within my idea of seasonal eating, which is what I'm trying to implement more strictly lately. For instance, on Tuesday we had 'winter tacos', which meant no lettuce and fresh tomatoes, but shredded white cabbage and lots of homemade salsa. Frank and I enjoyed it very much, the kids, well lets say, will need more time to get used to this.
My goal for the coming year will be to can enough of those summer things, like salsa and bread and butter pickles, to last us till the new crops.

I hope to make some sauerkraut tomorrow, I'll keep you all posted.

Have a great day filled with love and laughter!

blessings, Ellen

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Posted by Vickie

Ya'll did an increadible job!
The cookies & gingerbread house look great.

Have a great day!

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