The Christmas decorations came out in force... We didn't have time to put up our XL Christmas tree, so we settled for our compact Greek Christmas boat, complete with a small army of Santas - because in Greece Santa comes on new year's eve, not Christmas day. The orangey thing with the tassel is a pomegranate. It symbolises prosperity for the coming year.
This is our drinks station. In case you're wondering, these weren't all the drinks we had. Everything that needed to be kept cold (white wine, rose wine, aquavit, beer and soft drinks) we left outside on the balcony, as it was colder outdoors than inside the fridge.
I bought the festive tablecloth and matching napkins and paper plates half price at the post-Xmas sale. There are definitely advantages to celebrating late :-)
Mini millionaire shortbread squares, mini cappuccino brownie bites and glazed cinnamon stars (zimtstern) were also half price.
Loops made the vasilopita, traditional Greek new year's cake with a hidden coin, to be cut and shared out amongst those present. He or she who finds the coin is supposed to enjoy good luck for the next 12 months.
We also had traditional English Christmas cake (half price), gingerbread Santas (BOGOF) and a selection of Greek "syrup sweets", like kantaifi, touloumba and ravani (not discounted).
Needless to say, we had a lot of food too. No one thought to take any pictures.
We ate, linked hands and did the Auld Lang Syne thing (no photos either), then we cut the vasilopita.
Manni found the coin in her piece and is now looking forward to a good 2010. The rest of us just ate cake.
As we weren't sure if the the vasilopita would turn out OK (neither Loops nor I had ever made one before) we'd ordered a new year cake from a bakery. This one we had for dessert.
Looking at these photos, you may jump to the conclusion that our new year's party was all about eating cake. We did however also have a lot of food and drink, and we danced a bit too. But yes, we ate a lot of cake. In fact, even though most guests took food and cake home with them (Chris and Owen even took a whole veggie pizza), and our neighbour Jenny came round again the next day to help us finish off the leftovers, there is still party food in the house.
Anyone care for a slice of Christmas cake? Or a mini sausage?
17 comments:
Fantastic celebration !! Seems you had a great time !! Congratulations.
Looks like you had a blast -- great food and drinks :-)
Better late than never you know!
Lucky Manni - I would have loved to have a bite too :lol:
what a mind-blowing celebration ! I need a glass of red wine now :) Just kidding :)
Hi Tinsie! So few glasses for so many bottles; you should have inveited me... ;)
Thanks for your comment at my new blog Blogtrotter Two, now at the Art Deco District in South Beach! Hope to read you there often! Have a great week ahead!!!
@ Renny: A bite too? How naughty!!!
@ Trotter: LOL! You're right, that does look like too many bottles for the number of glasses :-D
Ooooh YUM! the food was certainly impressive! and I love the Xmas boat - did you make it?
Hi Sandi,
The food you see on these photos is of course only a fraction of what was available on the day!
As for the boat, we bought it in Brighton (of all places), the lights came from Greece and the mini Santas from Germany. I guess this makes it an international Xmas boat :-)
I want to try kantaifi, touloumba and ravani! If I still have room (and my pants still fit) I'll have cake afterward.
I actually jumped to the conclusion that your NYE part was all about drinking after seeing all of those bottles!
@ Karen: Vasilopita, English cake or both? Hehe :-)
@ Betty: Well... we did drink a fair bit, but not as much as we ate!
Both!
That's the *right* answer :-D
Great party - cheers Tinsie :)
Thank you for making the vasilopita :-)
olo: kali xronia tinaki! kai ego petixa to flouri!xexexe
Kali Xronia koukla, ke oti pothis ♥
Your New Years celebrations sounds and looks fab, and I am drooling over all the delicious sweets.
Yes, you're right, you did spot melomakarona...Mum made those, and kourabiethes. I get my fix each time I go back home to visit.
Episis & kala koulouma!
My mum sent me melomakarona and kourabiethes in the post, but for some reason our local post office kept them in sorting for almost a month, finally delivering them 10 days after the party on 19th January. They claim they couldn't deliver due to the snow and ice on the roads, but all my regular post has been getting here, so it's just a lame excuse. At least there's no central heating at the post office warehouse, so they arrived looking and tasting great. I'd have been gutted if they'd gone off.
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