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a Merry Christmas
Dec. 25th, 2006 09:28 pmI just got off the phone with my mom's side of the family, who are all together at my aunt and uncle's place for Christmas day. The last time I talked to all of them was last Christmas, when I called then. Christmas is about the one time of the year when I'm not a fan of living overseas, when I know all my family is getting together and I'm not. It makes calling home both happy and sad. But I got to talk to my nephew! For the first time - he'll be two in February, and can just about say "Hi" and "bye" on the phone. I'm really looking forward to seeing him in June!
Other than that, this has been a better Christmas than last year, in part because I made a concerted effort to make it better. Friday I had some errands to run and was able to pick up Joel's gifts, as well as new sparkly balls for Widget, as he'd recently completely destroyed his old one, and then in the evening I made an attempt at making gingerbread cookies. You can't get molasses at regular grocery stores here, so I used stroop instead, which is similar to molasses but doesn't have quite the same flavor, and isn't as dark or as rich. I doubled the other spices in the recipe, and they turned out pretty decent. I wanted to frost them, but the recipe for frosting my mom sent called for corn syrup, and you also can't get that at the regular grocery stores. There's a chance I can get both at the Natuurwinkel (natural food store), and if I can, I'll maybe make another batch. But in the meantime, these were pretty good, and even though I didn't actually get to frost them, I still popped in the traditional Christmas cookie decorating CD while I made them. (Asia's self-titled album, because of the song "Wildest Dreams", which starts off "They decorated all the generals".)
Saturday I spent nearly an hour waiting in line at the butcher shop just to get half a kilo of bacon, but everyone was so good natured that it wasn't really a hassle. Joel started a loaf of bread and made cranberry salad, and then we made a cheesecake, the first one we've made since arriving here. (You also can't get graham crackers at regular grocery stores, but both my mom and a friend brought us some when they visited.) This was all prep work for yesterday, when we had a friend from the ILLC over to dinner. We basically did Thanksgiving dinner all over again - glazed duck, green beans with toasted almonds, mashed potatoes with spinach, peccorino, and bacon, olives & pickles, cranberry salad, bread, cheesecake, and cookies. Oh, and gluehwein. We had a delightful evening, playing Munchkin and Attika and thoroughly enjoying the cheesecake.
This morning we slept in, and then exchanged our gifts. I'd run out of bubble bath awhile ago and had asked Joel to get me some, because I didn't want to go through the hassle of figuring out what it is in Dutch and finding where it can be bought, so it'd be part of the gift to me if he would do that for me! (In exchange, I went to all the camera shops to find lens paper, which he's been wanting for ages. I didn't find any lens paper, but I got two possible substitutes, one of which he said will work.) So I spent a lovely part of the early evening luxuriating in jasmine bath foam, mmm! He also picked up something really unusual for me - a little sachet of dried raspberry leaves, for making tea. They smell incredibly raspberry-y, but the tea itself (which has to steep for 10 minutes) doesn't taste fruity at all, it tastes very vegetably. Despite its oddity, I like it quite a bit.
And then we finished off the night by watching the Doctor Who Christmas special and then I called home. This has definitely been a nice Christmas.
Other than that, this has been a better Christmas than last year, in part because I made a concerted effort to make it better. Friday I had some errands to run and was able to pick up Joel's gifts, as well as new sparkly balls for Widget, as he'd recently completely destroyed his old one, and then in the evening I made an attempt at making gingerbread cookies. You can't get molasses at regular grocery stores here, so I used stroop instead, which is similar to molasses but doesn't have quite the same flavor, and isn't as dark or as rich. I doubled the other spices in the recipe, and they turned out pretty decent. I wanted to frost them, but the recipe for frosting my mom sent called for corn syrup, and you also can't get that at the regular grocery stores. There's a chance I can get both at the Natuurwinkel (natural food store), and if I can, I'll maybe make another batch. But in the meantime, these were pretty good, and even though I didn't actually get to frost them, I still popped in the traditional Christmas cookie decorating CD while I made them. (Asia's self-titled album, because of the song "Wildest Dreams", which starts off "They decorated all the generals".)
Saturday I spent nearly an hour waiting in line at the butcher shop just to get half a kilo of bacon, but everyone was so good natured that it wasn't really a hassle. Joel started a loaf of bread and made cranberry salad, and then we made a cheesecake, the first one we've made since arriving here. (You also can't get graham crackers at regular grocery stores, but both my mom and a friend brought us some when they visited.) This was all prep work for yesterday, when we had a friend from the ILLC over to dinner. We basically did Thanksgiving dinner all over again - glazed duck, green beans with toasted almonds, mashed potatoes with spinach, peccorino, and bacon, olives & pickles, cranberry salad, bread, cheesecake, and cookies. Oh, and gluehwein. We had a delightful evening, playing Munchkin and Attika and thoroughly enjoying the cheesecake.
This morning we slept in, and then exchanged our gifts. I'd run out of bubble bath awhile ago and had asked Joel to get me some, because I didn't want to go through the hassle of figuring out what it is in Dutch and finding where it can be bought, so it'd be part of the gift to me if he would do that for me! (In exchange, I went to all the camera shops to find lens paper, which he's been wanting for ages. I didn't find any lens paper, but I got two possible substitutes, one of which he said will work.) So I spent a lovely part of the early evening luxuriating in jasmine bath foam, mmm! He also picked up something really unusual for me - a little sachet of dried raspberry leaves, for making tea. They smell incredibly raspberry-y, but the tea itself (which has to steep for 10 minutes) doesn't taste fruity at all, it tastes very vegetably. Despite its oddity, I like it quite a bit.
And then we finished off the night by watching the Doctor Who Christmas special and then I called home. This has definitely been a nice Christmas.
