My Homemade Christmas 2014

 I made this wreath from leaves and small pomegranates that were inedible. I have 4 trees on the farm and they produced like crazy. I made a syrup with an ancient recipe used in Albania! It is so easy, I just couldn't believe myself. I will share with photos of the syrup I made.

Happy Christmas everyone. I do hope that you all had a good one. Mine was good, full of good food and some gifts :)  The last two days before Christmas were very busy; I made lots of tea loaves and cookies and gave them to my friends, most of them were farmers. I also made some lavender sacks and gave them to some friends; also lost of jars of homemade jams and chutneys were given to some friends. All the gifts cost me about 20 euros! And I didn't set a foot inside any shop or supermarket, yaya. 24 December I made a nice cake and went to visit my old friend Giovani. If you read old posts you will know more about him. Anyway, he is in his mid 80s and lives alone; he has a nasty niece who didn't even call him to wish him a merry Christmas! Anyway, I went to visit him and he was so happy  to see me :) 

 On 25 December, I woke up early, made myself a nice cup of coffee and an almond mini cake, see above photo. Then I watched Little Lulu on youtube, haha. This is my tradition and I love it. Then I went out to feed the animals and check all is ok, then I had a nice hot shower, got ready and went to my friend Stella'a house for a Christmas feast. I ate like a pig and returned  home with a full belly and happy face :)   ( did you see the little wooden spoon in the photo above? It was a gift from a farmer friend! I've never met one single Italian who doesn't have no artistic skill! It is amazing, all seem to possess artistic skills!

Oh, and of course I opened the sack Santa left for me through the chimney, hehe. It was from my landlady full of dried beans, corn flour, chickpeas flours, dates, and other goodies.

 I baked these sweet/savory biscuits. They are wonderful with good cheese and homemade chutney. They are made with oat and flour and very easy to make. I can post the recipe if anyone interested. 

 26 December I ate a lot of Brussels Sprouts. Italians do not eat them and I am lucky to have a farmer friend who is a vegetarian and grows them! The chili was harvested from my plot and kept in the freeze. I have a big zipper bag full of fresh hot chili in my freezer.

 I also made a nice soup with cauliflower and lots of spinach.

And I went for a nice walk before snow and arctic weather hit us today. It is freezing and finally winter is here. We had a very mild weather; it felt like Autumn through out November and December, up to today!

Anyway, I hope you all had a good Christmas and remember the joy of Christmas is giving not receiving; also do not think of what others had or how they spent their day, just try to make the most of it with the little things you have. I have no money and it is so hard here but that was never a problem to me. Money doesn't bring happiness; I gift homemade stuff and they bring so much joy to the receivers and to me.