FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Today is Christmas day and for us a a very new version of all Christmas celebrations in our life !

We will be alone only the two of us due to the lockdown. I had got the Father Christmas wish list via a link from grandson Toby, therefore I had no gifts to wrap in ! I had only to pay. 

We will have Sushi because we love them and not a sophisticated Christmas meal. Late afternoon we will get the link from ZOOM and celebrate with the Amsterdam family on the screen !

Even in my wildest dreams, I would never have believed that I would celebrate Christmas like this! Seems like "Back to the Futur" or better "Forward to the Futur"

 

 

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

HODGEPODGE DECEMBER 24

1. I feel like episode 400 cannot go without comment. That's a whole lot of Hodgepodging folks. 2000 questions if my math is right. So, what's something you feel like you do 400 times a week? 

Probably more ..... I look on my watch !

2. Tell us where you were and something about what your life looked like in the year 2000? 

For me that would be 20 ago. I had stopped working and missed my office, I was bored and it was difficult for me to reorganize my life. My son had left the house and lived in London and I was at home with 4 cats.  The rest I don't remember !

3. Do you like cinnamon? What's something you make and enjoy that calls for cinnamon? Of the cinnamon 'foods' listed which is your favorite-red hot cinnamon candies, cinnamon toast, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, apple cinnamon oatmeal, churros, an Indian curry.

I am not a fan of cinnamon and I have never made something which contained cinnamon. From all food which is listed I only know a cooked apple with cinnamon

4. Does Christmas 2020 (or Hanukkah) look much like it has in years past, or is this year vastly different for you and your family? How so? How are you feeling about it all? 

This year there will be no Christmas for me. I have no Christmas mood whatsoever and even the Christmas songs which I loved get on my nerves. With our lockdown rules we are allowed to invite ONE person, if it is a couple I have to leave the person outside and feed her or him in the staircase. Anyway my family living in Amsterdam cannot come, it would be too complicated and my son cannot leave his wife and son alone for Christmas to see his old parents in Brussels !

Therefore I will "celebrate" with Mr. G. and Rosie. We will have no traditional Christmas food but  Sushis which we both like very much. Then we will watch TV  a bit and probably be on Zoom with the Amsterdam family and grandson Toby will show us what Father Christmas had brought him !
 

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 The list for father Christmas I got per email with a link to the gift. 10 year old Toby has got a smartphone for his 10th birthday and can communicate with Nonna (me) now directly. Although it is not at all like in my childhood I go with modern times, I ordered the wanted gifts on Internet had it delivered to Amsterdam  wrapped in Christmas paper. The only thing I had to do was to pay !

5. What's one thing you need or want to do before this year ends? 

Close my eyes dream I was a witch and find myself suddenly in 2020, without lockdowns, rules, Coronavirus but travels, going out visiting things and enjoy life !!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I am more than fed up being locked in for 9 month with a little interruption ! People become aggressive, and Politicians mad, now that we really need each others help. I only hope that the world will learn something from this catastrophe !

 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

 

Country life 

more participants here, and Image-in-ing 

CHRISTMAS MARKET IN WATERLOO - BELGIUM

Each year we had a Christmas market in Waterloo. It was just in front of the city hall. It was not big, but cosy and gave the Waterloo people the opportunity to meet, have a drink together and eat special Christmas food. 

This year due to the worldwide Corona lockdown, there are no Christmas markets at all, nowhere, at least that's what they say. Therefore I digged in my photos and found the Christmas market pictures from two years ago ! 

 The City Hall

I wonder what is in this gift box, probably Christmas air !

food and drinks

Handmade jewelery

The lamp in front is a heating for people when they drink their hot wine or beer

of course father Christmas is there too

and a cheese stand

Oisters with Champagne are very much appreciated !

more participants here

AWWWW MONDAY-WEEKEND DECEMBER 19

 A burgler !!

WEEKEND

On Saturday it was an awful day ! Mr. instead of wishing me a "good morning" told me that the toilet was out of work ! Very romantic ! I told him to repair it and leave me in peace until I had had my coffee ! He tried (at least) but had to give up because it is a very modern toilet and we had never seen such a system. 

A thought it is something completely stupid and instead of calling a plumber I called our young friend JC who immediately came and fixed it in 10 min. He explained the new system to Mr. G. and I hope there will not be a next time ! 

In the afternoon we went to Myriam, I picked up Nicole because she is not allowed to drive her car because of the chimeo therapy. As usual we had a nice afternoon, despite the fact that we had gotten a few new Corona Virus rules, which seemed to us completely absurd !

On my way home it was dark and I could finally see the Christmas decoration in the city center. Honestly it was quite poor compared to the other years, there were many empty shops and only a few people on the street !

 

 

This Christmas tree stood on a place not in the center of Waterloo, which was really a pity

In front of the church in the city center stood the same old cone which should represent a Christmas tree !

I have no idea who had choosen this master piece which is also standing there since several years, sometimes the bulbs are broken and the "tree" looks a bit skinny !

Our city hall had no tree, last year there was the Christmas market here ! There was really nothing special to see, not even people ! And they had said we should decorate the houses to lift our mood, but the municipality had done nothing for that !

On Sunday I made my Christmas cards and wrote the post for my cat blog. Looking out of the window I saw gardeners and the house lady standing there, and then they pulled a tree out. Now there is a big hole in the lawn. I purred because I could watch all this from my 3rd floor and had to do nothing not even paying the bill !!

In the afternoon Mr. G's Whist partner came and also Myriam and we ate the Italian and German Christmas cake (Stollen and Panetone) ! For Myriam it was the first time and she liked it. The sun came out and we nearly took a sunbath behind the closed windows. 

It's getting worse and worse here in Europe, lockdowns are extended and flights or Eurostar to and from the UK are all cancelled. You can't get in and you can't get out ! Corona helped at least the Brexit ! Sad for the families who wanted to meet for Christmas