New Year's Eve

We hosted the small family gathering this year: the three of us (with Lucas only off and on), Norbert's sister Reingard and her husband, Herbert; their daughter, Tanja and her husband, Stefan; and their son, Rainer.

Norbert and I decided on buffet of more or less finger foods, starting with Frikadellen (German meatballs/hamburgers) and sauteed chicken fillet strips.

 Devilled eggs, homemade French bread and garlic butter, boiled shrimp and hot cocktail sauce, platter of baby carrots, green, orange, red and yellow paprikas with ranch dip sauce; and smoked trout fillets and smoked salmon.

Oops!  I think he is good enough to eat  up, but he wasnt on the menu.  'This handsome devil just jumped into camera range as I was photographing the food.

On we go with cheese platter with grapes and crackers, pretzel sticks, chips with ranch dip, two kinds of peanuts, and paprika-flavoured chips.

And you have to have dessert, too, right?  The last of the chocolate chip cookie bowls came out, this time filled with Brownie Trifle:  chopped up brownies topped with chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream, with some sprinkles on top for a bit of colour.

A good time was had by all!

One of my Christmas presents, which I asked for (and actually picked out myself) was a soup tureen.  There is a small shop in town which sells Brenzlau pottery, beautiful Polish pottery pieces.  I have a few pieces of it and seem to get another one or two every year.

Of course I had to put it right to use.  I made Williamsburg Turkey Soup.  Anything with carrots, onions, celery, turkey, rice, a half pound of butter and a pint of whipping cream has to be good, and it was.  And it was even better the second day!

Remember those little Santa has?  I found more places for them.....

A new kind of Christmas Cactus:

Where else but on the (chocolate) Santa?

And even an Iphone needs a little love every now and then....

Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be an interesting day.  I have my first physical therapy session at 8:30 and must admit, I have absolutely no idea of what to expect.  Immediately after it I will come home, pick up Lucas and head directly to Maastricht, Netherlands, about an hour away, for the Vacansoliel team presentation.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it all was.

Susan