28 Dec 2012

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 !


21 comments:

  1. You had the perfect ingredients for a wonderful Christmas.
    1. A blonde two year old named Toby.
    2. A white cat named Arthur.
    3. Tasty Belgian food, I have never heard of a gadget called Kalorik or Pierrade.
    4. A market on Christmas day??? Nothing is open Christmas day here.
    5. Clever ideas such as placing photos on gifts.
    Love Toby's cowlick, the bit of blonde hair sticking up when he is sitting in his stroller/push chair.
    My grandsons and my cats are much older but I still had a good Christmas with family.

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  2. that looked like the perfect Christmas including a screaming toddler in the market place. I love the shot with Toby and Arthur at the window. Your meals sound delicious. Our raclette is broken and they don't sell them here. We bought this one in Switzerland. What a fabulous expression on Toby's face when he saw the presents. You were so lucky to spend that time with your grandson.

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  3. Hi there! Belated Merry X-mas and wishing you all the best for 2013!
    God bless you!
    Cezar

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  4. What a clever idea to stick photos to each present! It seems you had a great time with your family and the food looks good enough to eat :)

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  5. I love all the pictures. Your grandson is so cute. Your menu sounds so interesting. I'd love to try all the food you mentioned :)!

    Happy New Year!

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  6. What an adorable grandson you have!! i LOVED looking at all your pictures and i LOVE Your idea of putting a photo on the gifts so he could help pass them out. I wanna steal your idea for some young parents I know! Happy New YEar to you!!

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  7. What a cute grandson you have! I loved all your pictures. It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!! Happy new year to you!

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  8. Christmas is so much fun with a little one! What a great idea you had pasting your pictures on the gifts. And I just gotta love the melt down picture. I think we all have one who have had kids or grandkids. Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas with your family Gattina! Happy New Year to you!

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  9. Sounds like a fun time! That's a great idea to use photos for gift tags. I remember those little garages -- we always had something like that for little cars.

    It's always neat to see Christmas customs from other countries.

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  10. What a lovely Christmas and awesome that you had it so well documented.

    I LOVE the idea of picture tags on the presents. I am going to steal that idea for when my grand daughter is older.

    Hope your new year's celebration is great!

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  11. What a great way to label presents. I would have never thought of putting pictures. You cat Arthur loves people. He is so inquisitive and like a real memeber of the family. My Tatty was like that. Nothing escaped him.
    Poor Toby had enough traveling. They like to spend quiet time playing with their toys. My oldest was like that. The youngest is always on the road. lol
    Sounds like you had a perfect Christmas.:)

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  12. I'm so glad you had such a lovely time! Ours was also wonderful. I so love being a Grandma! I know you do too!

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  13. I didnt know you had this blog. Loved seeing all your lovely pictures. Gorgeous Christmas day..

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  14. Hi Gattina!
    What fun it must be to celebrate Christmas with a little one! I love your idea of putting the faces on the packages so he could be occupied in delivering the gifts to the right person! All your food looks great and I'm amazed at the European Christmas markets. I hope to experience one in the future. Have a great weekend and an early Happy New year to you!

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  15. I love the idea of putting the faces on the gifts! I'm going to do that next year for our three.
    Obviously you had a wonderful Christmas with Toby!

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  16. Looks like a wonderful Christmas. I love the idea of putting the photos on the packages, especially from little ones so they can recognize the gift giver!

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  17. And a wonderful time was had by all!! what a nice Christmas.

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  18. I really enjoyed reading about your Christmas. It is interesting how traditions are different throughout the world. Here we open presents on Christmas day. There is no market here to wander around on the big day. Having your granson there must make it an extra special day. Loved the idea of the photos on the presents.

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  19. Quel beau reportage, Gattina! J'aurais bien aimé voir cette fameuse dinde farcie de chez Picard!!! Vous avez passé un très beau Noël!!! Maintenant je me réjouis de te voir lundi!!! On va bien s(amuser aussi!

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  20. Wow, what a wonderful Christmas you had! Well done! I just LOVE the photo of Toby and Arthur at the window. And how clever of you to paste your photos onto each gift so that Toby knew who to hand it to. What a dear little boy. He is so tall and handsome. Hope you're having a great day. (((hugs))) Jo

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  21. I would have enjoyed all of that.
    Still enchanted with the weirdness of that tree. ha ha.

    I am very intrigued as well -- with you putting photos on the presents. All the years I've had grandchildren and never once did I ever even think of that for the little ones who couldn't read. That was so clever!

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