Christmas is just around the corner
I wish I could put the Christmas Spirit in a jar and enjoy it every month. Harlan Miller
Just a little while longer and we are getting ready to welcome the most beautiful holiday of the year, Christmas, because I like to say that in Romania December is the month of presents, the month when we seem to have the most work to do, but not at work but at home, now I'm referring again to our customs here in Romania, namely to put thousands of lights on the house (to be seen from the moon), to decorate the tree that has to be as big as possible, I've attached here some pictures of the tree that my neighbour prepared especially for Christmas, and the most important is what we put on the Christmas table, the food, and here in our customs there are many, many types of food that we have to have on the Christmas table.
I have the feeling that Christmas is not only about presents but this holiday brings us all together even if we are far away, it brings us closer even if only for a few moments.
The days before Christmas I think are the busiest days of the year, now is the time when we actually run through stores with shopping lists, we have to be very well organized lest we forget to buy something, especially since for the preparation of Christmas dinner we need a lot of stuff.
I have to admit even though we had a shopping list we still forgot to buy a few things, but we quickly solved the situation, we were lucky that near us is a store that was still open.
On Christmas Eve, the carolers come to our house and go from house to house singing carols, the hosts welcome them with cakes and all kinds of alcoholic drinks to warm up due to the cold outside, as the traditional drink that is served to them we have "Țuică" (an alcoholic drink made mostly from plums), as well as strength has somewhere between 45-62 degrees depending on the area where it is made), an old custom for hundreds of years, we have a certain type of carolers dressed in very old folk clothes they are called ,,Dubașii", they carry the tradition from generation to generation for over a hundred years.
After welcoming the carolers, we, the hosts, retire to the house for a meal of our own, here we are at this weekend's engagement of food and drink specially created for Christmas.
To start we serve an appetizer made of several dishes that my wife made especially for this day, here my wife created a plate on which she put as a base green salad, chicken crispy (for crispy you need thin pieces of chicken breast, corn flakes, egg, flour and spices), cheese, salted cheese, red pepper, ham, meatballs (these are balls made of ground pork, ground garlic, salt, pepper).
For the main course, because we are gourmets, we prepared a barbecue of pork but also of chicken and my favorite preparation of grilled bacon and onions cooked in hot coals, I must tell you that the traditional preparation of these days are "sarmale" (a preparation of ground pork, pepper, salt, and many spices, all wrapped in a leaf of sour cabbage).
Because the time was too short we didn't have time to prepare the dessert ourselves, so we ordered cake plates at a bakery in town, and here I have to tell you that the most ordered dish is the "cozonac" with walnut and poppy.
In these days of celebration we keep the old habits, namely at the table on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day we invite close friends to dine with us, for this reason I wrote above that when we go shopping we must be very well organized, otherwise we risk running out of food for guests.
Yes, we didn't say anything about what drinks we will serve at the Christmas Eve or Christmas Day table because we don't consume alcoholic drinks, they are prepared only for guests, but instead we served natural juices.
Our journey together ends here, I wish you all a fairytale Christmas, together with your loved ones, don't stop dreaming about your ideals.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
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P.S. The attached pictures you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone at my home in western Romania, and the text is also designed by me.
