As the hosts, we prepared three dishes: one appetizer, one main dish, and dessert. All drinks were on us too, but there was a “catch”. I’m someone who’s trying to UP their SUSTAINABILITY GAME, so we didn’t have any softdrinks; we have SODASTREAM!<\/a> (–> Check out the commercial!). No more plastic bottles, yeaaaaah!<\/p>\n And as usual, there was more than enough food for everyone. Seafood, meats, veggies, beer, wine, and of course our own sparkling drinks. We ate, talked, and laughed all night with a full plate of deliciousness and love. His family was quite impressed by our decorations and preparations of the house. Like I said, I felt very proud of myself. First day of Christmas was a success!<\/p>\n On Christmas Day itself Deon and I celebrated on our own; just the two of us in our pajamas on the couch eating carpaccio, steak, and the same dessert from last night, while watching The Witcher<\/a>:<\/em> all episodes (each 1 hour long), and ending the night with the newest Netflix 2-hour-packed-action-movie 6 Underground<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n For dessert, Deon tried a new recipe. Restaurant ’t Zusje<\/a> serves their own homemade dessert called “mislukte appelcake<\/a>” or translated “failed apple cake”. He loved it so much that he decided to try it out himself and serve it as dessert on Christmas. We couldn’t find their recipe online, but we did find a blog of another fan who recreated the recipe! Check it out on “Mamma’tje van Alles<\/a>“! Unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture of our results – maybe tomorrow.<\/p>\n Today it was my family’s turn to celebrate Christmas at our place. My family is somewhat smaller, so they all fit at the table. While Deon was preparing and cooking all the dishes, I cleaned and tidied the house; and my most favorite, decorated the table as fancy as possible. #cuzIlikeitlikethat<\/strong><\/p>\n The dishes we prepared were “patatje stoof<\/a>” (translated: beef stew with fries), beef wellington<\/a> (recipe by Gordon Ramsay of course), a whole roasted chicken<\/a> (recipe by, again, Gordon Ramsay), and “mislukte appelcake”. If you’ve also read my Christmas column last year<\/a>, I think it’s pretty obvious that my bf is the biggest fan of Gordon Ramsay.<\/p>\n We had a great dinner, even though the kids didn’t like any of it. But kids will be kids; it was only when I got older that I grew this curiosity of trying out new things – they’ll get there eventually.<\/p>\n![\"Tafel](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-11-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"Tafel](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-12-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"Veggies](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-2-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"Shrimp](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-4-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"Stir-fry](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-14-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"Crispy](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-16-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, Dec. 25th 2019<\/h3>\n
Thursday, Dec. 26th 2019<\/h3>\n
![\"Decorated](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-21-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-29-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
![\"Chicken](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-32-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"3](\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-35-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"mislukte](\"http:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Kerst2019-41-300x200.jpg\")