Christmas 2021

Christmas started early this year! Susan had suggested a festive meal at her place, just before I would go away for Christmas. I looked forward to it. And rightly so! The food was good, the company was better, and the cat gave his usual acte de presence. I only got to bed at 2 AM. I didn't actually remember that time even exists!

Prep (pic by Susan)

My actual Christmas should have happened in the Netherlands, but it clearly didn't. But within seconds I was booked full anyway; both my Finnish sister, and Jaco and Marjan, suggested Christmas dinner. And that made Christmas 2021 quite like Christmas 2020. With my sister the dinner would take place on a screen; with Jaco and Marjan it would be in person.

On Christmas Day I went for a walk, and then cooked the Christmas dinner I would eat with my sister. We made the same dishes! I made my first vegetable terrine. I don't know if my sister had made one before. It was really nice! And the two hour time difference didn't bother us. And there was even a cameo from the cat she was catsitting. My cat appeared too; she got a sachet of posh food when I had my Christmas dinner. She appreciated that!

Dramatic landscapes

Dramatic mushrooms

On Boxing Day I had to remake my Boxing Day dessert; I had found a nice cheesecake recipe, but the first version turned out as cheese soup on a biscuit base. I had to do better than that! And the second version was notably stiffer, but still not as stiff as it should have been. And I went for a nice run in the low sun. And then I joined the pre-dinner drinks of the Christmas dinner at my father's place that I should have attended. I joined them on a screen, of course. It was good to see them all anyway!

Sunny run

The dinner at Jaco and Marjan's was great too! Jaco had made Christmas tree-shaped pizza with Christmas tree-shaped garlic bread. And they shoved my cheesecake into the freezer, and that was some serious freezer, so when the cheesecake came out it was stiff enough to be cut and served as cake, rather than soup.

The garlic bread

Christmas pizza

What cheesecake should not do

Then Christmas was over! I had been a bit apprehensive about it when I realised I would have to stay home on my own, but I had underestimated my social circle, both the physically present part of that, and the remote part. It had been fine! And of course it was my first Christmas with the cat. But I do hope that next Christmas, international travel will be a lot easier than it has been the last two years…