Hi, everyone!
My friend La Vache stayed over after the stollen party until Christmas Eve. Grandma and I took her home and we stopped on the way to deliver some stollen at church.
When Grandma and Grandpa got home from midnight service on Christmas Eve, it was already Christmas afternoon in Japan. We Skyped Bill-kun and Karin-chan and their mommy and daddy and we all opened presents together. Then Grandma and Grandpa and I went to bed! When we got up, it was Christmas afternoon in the Netherlands. We Facetimed James and Thomas and their mommy and daddy and opened more presents with them! I was a good helper with presents, even the ones that were bigger than me!
After the present opening, Grandma and Grandpa did a big cooking project. They made arancini, which are balls of cooked rice breaded and deep-fried. Making the rice balls is very sticky work, so I couldn’t help with that or with cooking them in hot oil. So I did good helping by admiring them when they were all done! Grandma and Grandpa made a double recipe to make sure there were lots of extras to freeze. Grandma says she feels rich when she has arancini in the freezer! Since Grandma was serving arancini for Christmas dinner, she decided to make the rest of the menu from foods that end in “i”, too. We had barramundi with wasabi cream sauce and broccoli with our arancini. Everything was yummy! We had the coffee cheesecake that Moose-san and La Vache and I helped make for dessert. That doesn’t end in “i”, but it tasted good!
The last couple of weeks have been cloudy, but we had two days of sunshine after Christmas. I shared sunbeams with Grandma’s new jigsaw puzzle with tiny pieces and the amaryllis that came to the stollen party. We kept the Christmas present Belgian chocolates and cookies out of the sunshine, so they didn’t melt! My friend Annie came to visit with her parents and open her present from James and Thomas. It was fun to see her, and she really liked her present!
On New Years Eve, we had another party! Some of my best people friends came for dinner and so did Moose-san and La Vache! After dinner we all enjoyed Christmas cookies while we waited for midnight.
Right at midnight, all the people guests toasted the New Year with champagne or sparkling grape juice. Moose-san and La Vache and I did our toast a little bit later. Then it was time for everybody to go home. I said goodbye to my friends and went right to bed. It was WAY past my bedtime!
Love,
Lion-san
It looks like it was a party time for you! And you got to see Bill-kun, Karin-chan, James and Thomas all in one day! Wow!!!!!
We all had a fun time on New Years Eve and were glad to see everyone!