The spirit of Christmas

The spirit of Christmas, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We are getting into the spirit of Christmas here. I had my office Christmas party at a large hotel in the middle of Holland on Wednesday evening and Fred having his Christmas lunch on Friday afternoon (his day off) at school.

On Thursday, I canme home with the two traditional poinsettias (the dark red of the flowers matching the black marble of the fireplace) and some Christmas lights (five euros for a hundred lights).

This continued on Saturday, when we went down to Intratuin for our Serbian fir tree (very thick, but a lovely traditional shape) as well as more lights, plus thick candles, Christmas table cloth and napkins and more lights.

This was followed by frequent trips to the shops to bring in the wine (all Argentinean - including Catena Malbec and Argento Chardonnay and Alamos sparkling wine), all the ingredients for cooking cakes as well as lots of fruit and vegetables, including turnips, pumpkin and salsify (having during the week eaten a delicious pasta made out of these vegetables, combined with ham/speck and parmesan cheese) as well as delicious displays of fruit, including Nigella's pomegranates.

Just as well I got my Deecember (plus 13th month) salary paid before the weekend...