Hofgeluk

How were your Holidays? They were just fine for me; spending time with my lovelies, giving presents, playing board games and of course enjoying delicious food. Nothing wrong with that! But after 4 days in a row, it is time for a simple dish… So I made a delicious soup today of a pumpkin harvested from our garden in autumn.  Peel an onion and cut it into pieces. Do this also with the pumpkin. Take a big cooking pot, but the butter in it and let it melt. Adjust the onion and pumpkin. Let it stove for a couple of minutes while stirring. Adjust stock and let it stew until the pumpkin is very soft. (I have always home prepared stock in my freezer, very handy). Mix it and if you like you can adjust some tomato puree. Let it bowl. Done! We ate it with cheese crackers and little slices of bread and butter. You can also add little meatballs. My children love this soup. Bon appétit!

How are you handling the last days before the holidays begins? They were always very stressful for me over the last years. Not this year.... due to everything we have been through this year and the knowledge that difficult moments are yet to come we decided that spending time with the ones we love is so mutch more important.  And I must say, it was the best decision ever, no holidays stress for me. Just enjoying the time.

As I was a child I loved to play games with my brothers. They didn't always enjoy it, playing with their little sister. Having children of my own, it is the perfect excuse to play  board games again. Hamster clan of Haba is our favourite at the moment. I do love the games of Haba, they always look beautiful, fun playing and they use high quality materials.  Spending quality time with my kids on an early Sunday morning.

My DIY Christmas cards A lthough we live in a multimedia world, I still love to send my Christmas wishes on a postcard. How do you send them? I make our cards myself. Last year I used a picture of us as a family, but this year it is a completely different layout. I must say that Pinterest is a great help for gathering ideas. This year no photo and a very basic message. I used gift labels from Daphne’s Diary (you know, my favorite magazine, check www.daphnesdiary.com ) and printed them on shiny paper. On a paper in a different colour I printed our wish, stick the label on the front and all done. Happy with the result!

I have a really bad habit (okay more than one...) I drink lots and lots of coffee. I start the day with a cup and end it with one... Not a healthy habit. But now I have discovered a really nice teablend from à table! Speculoos with a spicy flavour. It turned me into a temporarily tea lover!

Couple of days ago I posted a message about how to paint wooden beads. Today I made little decorations with them. They look beautiful in our tree. Don't you think?! Take a iron wire (I took some wire which I use for my flower decorations). Lace the little wooden beads on it. Fold it in a shape (I made little hearts) and close it by cording the ends together.  Put it in your tree by a ribbon (I used recycled ribbon from received gifts) Very easy to do and a cheap one!

It snowed this morning and turned our garden in a beautiful winter wonderland. It was just such a lot of fun for our kids.... and yes, a bit for us too. Now spending a few hours on the sofa watching a Christmas movie and me crocheting on my family blanket. Such a lovely afternoon.

I made my own Christmas decorations together with my son. So fun to do and it made him so proud now they are in the Christmas tree! We used air dry clay. Roll it out until you have a thin layer. Use cut-outs, make a little hole in it and let it dry. Wait long enough! Paint them in your favourite colour, we used pink and a bit white and a stamp paint brush. Let it dry again. We also used sparkles to let them shine. O yes and a little wire to put them into your tree.

I was looking for an easy way to paint my wooden beads. They were brown and I wanted to paint them pink. And I found a really easy way...! Just put them in a plastic tray, add the paint, mix it with your paintbrush and let it dry! Done!

Looking back, I had such a lovely month. My first order to the USA of my little Christmas socks, crafting new things, special moments with my husband and kids. Curious how December is going to be!