FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

This week of course was full of events which I can't even number so my Favourite 5 will be from
one to five in two parts !

On Monday we expected our son with family who arrived from Amsterdam around 1 pm. Father Christmas was hidden in the trunk of their car with lots of gifts and while they emptied the car  2 year old Toby immediately had recognized that he was in Nonno's and Nonna's house.



First thing he wanted was to make his rounds on the terrace, followed by cat Arthur, who, strangly loves toddlers ! Toby decorated our French windows with little "cars" stickers assisted by Arthur. After a brunch he had his afternoon nap, while we all four played Father Christmas and put the gifts under the Christmas tree.



There were lots and lots of packages, and I had glued pictures of our faces on the parcels so he could recognize to whom the gift was destinated. And then he arrived with a big smile and discovered the colorful boxes under the tree. While we had an apperitif with little snacks the unpacking started !



We had explained to him what he had to do, he took is job very seriously and distributed meticulously the gifts looking first at the photo.



Of course he pulled out the biggest once first, which what a coincidence (!!) were with his photo ! With Mamma's, Papa's and Nonna's help he unpacked his gifts. Arthur also wanted to help !

When finally we had a big mountain of paper laying around and all gifts were unwrapped,
we started our Christmas Eve meal. Smoked slices of Salmon on toast, while Toby had his main course.



Then we made a pause and he played a bit



But he got quickly tired, it had been so exciting, he was ready for bed ! Therefore the "official" Christmas pictures with Papa and Nonna, were "perfect" !



When he was in bed, we started the main course, a Pierrade which is a raclette underneath to melt the cheese and above has two plates, one in stone and one as a grill. So we had all kind of meat and cheese, which everybody prepared himself and I served a salad and jacket potatoes with it. It's fun and it tastes good !


And as dessert we had a rasperry ice cream "Bûche de Noël" litteraly translated it means a "Christmas log".

Full and happy the young parents started to built up Toby's new Garage and a little train station.



Daddy tried, but Mamma was far better in assembling and screwing the parts together and took over the job !

On Christmas afternoon we went to the huge Christmas market in Brussels (around 210 stalls)



but first we had a look on the ugliest Christmas tree of the world on the Grand'Place. The market was so crowded that it was hard to see the stalls and it was really too annoying for Toby who only saw legs, and when he was sitting on Papa's shoulders he could see everything even more then we did, but he wanted Mamma. So we carried a loud screaming Toby through the crowd !



A Brussels' wafel calmed him down for a while, but finally we returned we had seen enough. Once on the sidewalk where he could run on his own legs, he was a happy little boy again.

In the evening we had our traditional Christmal meal, a turkey filled with prunes, chestnuts and Armagnac which was really delicious, and before as a Starter Scallops.



Our son keeps to traditons and had ordered the traditional "Bûche de Noël, which is made with chocolate mousse inside. Toby prefered Mama's fish plate to the turkey !

Now to be honnest I didn't do all this cooking ! I just bought it in my favorite "Deepfreeze" shop !



After his bath, Nonno read a story to Toby before he went to bed and so ended Christmas.

The next day, they left after breakfast, and we rested the whole day ! I had to sort out hundreds of pictures so I had enough to do.

The week ended in terrible rain and I took the opportunity to clean the house and then I just watched TV and blogged a bit !