Happy New Year

Holidays are over and officially over tommorow 06/01! How sad.. I love to see our house decorated and all the streets with lights in every color and shape! At night the scenery is spectacular! But all things come to an end and we will be waiting for the next Christmas to come. I just wish the New Year brings us peace, love and health. And people to be happier, because last year was excausting, economicaly speaking, for everybody who lives in Greece and this makes people angry and sad.

I was very enthousiastic when I had a down town walk with my sister on Christmas Eve and the people were enjoying the sun in the squares or in the cafes or just wondering around. This was very nice because they were lots of people. Very nice to see the centre in such a motion!

So, on Christmas day we had a fantastic time with my family as we do every year at my grandma's, who had decorated beautifuly the Christmas table.

And as you can see, everything was ready for our Christmas lunch.

Even the lobster!

My grandma was fully working between cooking pots and frying pans!

After eating many many foods and deserts and gaining at least 5 kilos, we opened the gifts. Here is my little cousin Donatos with all his presents!

And my other cousin Maximos with his new muppets T-shirt.

This is me, Maria and our mom.

Now, for the New Year's Eve..

We made together with my sweet grandma a New Year's pie. In Greek we call it "Vassilopita" and we hide a coin inside. After the changing of the New Year, we share it with friends and family and whoever is lucky to find the coin, he will be lucky for all year. This time my father in law found it!

But all great things come to an end as I've told you before..

And now...back to business...

YEAH!

C is for Cookie

Now I'm going to tell you what I did last weekend while outside is heavy raining. My last weekend was very cooking interesting! That's because we made a lot of Christmas Cookies with my sister Maria!! 

So, everything's ready: flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla..

And of course our lovely Christmas and non Christmas coupe pats. Angels, people, Christmas tree, pear (well this looked more like a butt...sorryyyy), hearts, stars and the moon. 

After 2 hours of mixing, coupe pating, baking and decorating what we got was this:

Most of the cookies were decorated by my sister.

Their colours are so vivid! I'm lovin' it.

We've given some to our neighbours for Christmas.

Maria on the go!

And Maria very proud for the final result, after having eaten at least 20 cookies herself!

The leftovers of our multicoloured icing.

Nice huh? But I was cleaning the kitchen for one hour after all this mess..Anyway, that's the least important. I liked it so much, I'm gonna do this again very soon! Sooner than next Christmas hopefully..

...And the next day, I cooked mushroom soup a la francais for my darling, because he loves it.

 ...And not only that, but also mussels with garlic sauce on top. Very easy to cook, very hard to clean them. You spent at least one hour for cleaning them..But he loves eating them also..So..I don't care!

So, after this tasty yummy weekend, I'm heading to the family Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Sleigh bells ring

are you listening

in the lane

snow is glistening 

A beautiful sight

we're happy tonight

walking in a winter wonderland..

Rockin' around the xmas tree

We are only 6 days before Christmas! Isn't that great? With all the problems affecting our country (Greece) I think many people including me, have lost the sense of time and in some way can't believe that Christmas is so close..

But I'm doing my best to alert myself by....decorating the house of course!!

This is a small ornament hanging on our Christmas tree.

Golden balls and a very nice garland with stars in a very weird colour.

And some golden autumn leaves on the Christmas tree..

Christmas lights in and outside the house. I love Christmas lights!!

And this is a small Santa I had bought some years ago who is very sweet..

These two are our two cute dogs that guard night and day our Christmas tree.

These chocolate santas are a gift from my brother Benny and Argiro and it's very weird I haven't eaten them yet. Maybe I'll wait till Christmas..no promises!

We have also put gel stickers on some windows.

And I have decorated the fireplace with an outstanding mistletoe garland.

And pinecones..

Here is a babouska. It's a gift from my mom, from her trip to Russia.

And last but not least, Ciccio's shock is hanging in front of the fireplace, because he is waiting for Santa to bring him a BIG bone for Christmas.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...But NO! It will be raining for the second week here..

 So, I guess we'll have a rainy Christmas!!

London's calling

Well, I have to write for sometime here..

The truth is I was very busy with work..especially the past two/three weeks and I went a 4 day trip to London (my favourite city) with mi amor. But this was in November, so it's not a good excuse right?

The reason for this trip was the concert of the Red Hot Chili Peppers..

This is outside the O2.

And before we get in the stalls.

The Red Hots are my favourite #1 of the list band and it was a dream of a lifetime to watch them live on stage.

Of course with my beer and nachos on hand!! The funny thing is that people don't believe I'm 28!! They think I'm younger than 20, so if I wanna buy some beer I have always to carry my ID for proving it. Crazy?

In the O2, Gibson had a small exhibition and we visited. Nice stuff!!

And lots of pictures with the Gibson artists.

After leaving the concert I was a bit disapointed with Anthony Kiedis, because during the 1/3 of the concert he wasn't on stage. I don't know what exactly happened but he seemed to have technical issues.. But on the other hand I felt fulfilled because the rest of the band was excellent and really loved the concert and one of my dreams came true..finally! Also we bought 2 t-shirts. This is Soto's RHCP tee.

I wanted to buy the same, but then I though "Heyy, we don't have to buy the same tees!!", so I bought another one with the fly of their new CD cover. For which I don't have a pic to show.

One night we went to Oxford str. and the roads were wearing their xmas outfits. Which was nice..:)

And for a really BIG pizza at the Pizza Hut!!

And the only leftover was this:

Fantastic!

We went to a very nice pub opposite Leicester Square tube station.

The fact is that we visited many pubs and we drunk many beers. I love pubs! One thing I love in England is pubs. That's one of a lot of things I love in England to be honest. I love museums, I love the tube, I love the concerts, I love the theaters, I love the people and I love the culture. English people respect each other. If not 100% of them, let's say 95%. This is what I see each time I visit this country. 

But the 4 days passed quickly and we had to return. 

With nostalgy of leaving this great city!!

London I love you!


P.S.: Ciccio I missed you, you little doggy dog!