Last Sunday my mom's partner J. celebrated his 75th birthday with a fancy buffet brunch. Here's the food I gobbled up:


A slice of brown bread with fried egg (fried while you wait!) + a croquette + carpaccio (thinly sliced raw beef with parmezan cheese bits) + a small sesamy bagel with creamcheese and salmon + orange juice and milk:)


A small bowl of honey melon and Galia melon with ham + a breadroll with Brie. Oh and a couple of fries, that I had already eaten before I remembered to take a photo:)


A bit of icecreamcake, a slice of carrotcake, a profiterole (cream puff) with speculaas cream, two petit fours, two macarons, a thin slice of spekkoek (Indonesian layercake) and a tiny glass of pineapple mousse with advocaat (a Dutch eggnog with brandy; I only had a couple of spoons of the mousse, then handed the left over bit with the eggnog to my mom;)


One last petit four and a marshmallow dipped in the chocolate fountain:) The end.

It was my mom's Birthday on Friday (June 24th) and we had cake. And pizza. And then more cake \o/


I brought 'Zwolse Truffel TomPouce' from the Bonbonnerie. (Blue and white are our city's colours)


Look how cool on the inside! (Made with a drop of Blue Curaçao;)


Mom had a fishy pizza, I had a calzone, chockful of meat and cheese (no veggies except the tomatosauce!)


When we got back to mom's house, she had more cake: a Christoffel Merengue for me and a Strawberry flan.

On Monday, December 26 I celebrated my 42nd birthday, yay!


Mixed birthday and xmas decorations:)


I told you about my Hufflepuff scarf, right?


Brotherdearest came over a day early for a sleep-over and Buffy/Angel marathon. Yay, party!


Besides the traditional 'Hazelnootpunten' plus the Sunshine and Valencia from bakery Dorgelo, I also got some fancy xmas-cakes. (Yellow is Irish Coffee, red is raspberry and green is yoghurt flavor, mmmm)


While waiting for my mom and Jan, Hans and I started on the big birthday cake *g*


Happy birthday to me:)


And then we ate ALL the cakes. Omnomnom.


I served snacks *proud* (plus a sneak peek at my presents on the corner of the table)


For diner we walked to chinese restaurant Ko Shing. (About five minutes from my apartment)


For starters I had Wo Tan Soup (with dumplings).
Mom and Jan had crab (so cool with the little claws;).


Maincourses for everyone (Fish for Mom and Jan, Meat for me, Veggie for Hans)


Desserts! (Dame Blanche for mom, strawberry/lemon sorbet for Hans, coupe chocolate for me)


Thanks for all the Bday and Xmas cards! (Hi, Misha;)


My presents \o/
Nightcircus from Tanya; frog, Bookstand, puzzles, skeleton and book from Mom and Jan; Calender, book and dvd from Hans, adorable chrochet pigs from Silvia. Not in the photo: big book from Jelle. Thank you all! *hugs*

My 41st birthday!


Cake from my favorite bakery. Just when I lit my candle, mom and Jan arrived. Shortly after brotherdearest Hans and Benthe joined the party:)


We spent the afternoon talking about baby Ruben. And possibly politics and life in general *grins*


After cake and presents I offered a selection of sweet and salty treats.
(Note to self; next time less snacks before dinner;)


A little before six we walked to the restaurant.


We made it through the snow without slipping! (Okay, so some people miscalculated the depth of the snow, but that was funny:)


First course: Pekingsoup


Second course: one plate serves two people;)


Main course: Jan & Benthe shared Peking platters (duck, pork, chicken and prawns) - Mom and I shared Shizuan platters (beef, pork, chicken and roasted pork) - Hans had a Chinese meatplatter.


My plate (also includes some sate-sauce and a dumpling from Hans) the main course is served with noodles (or rice:)


Dessert: coupe chocolata (mine) and a bananaboat (mom). Jan and Benthe had coffee, Hans had a strawberry/lemon sorbet.


Around 20.45 we stumbled walked back home:)

For some reason Hans wanted to show Benthe a video of that Monty Python sketch of Mr Creosote in the restaurant *grins*. Then I waved goodbye to everyone and I finally had some alone time with my presents!


A calendar from the restaurant;
from mom & Jan: The Adventuress by Audrey Niffenegger, a book by Carry Slee, towels and a skeleton card (it moves!);
from Hans & Benthe: book by Paulien Cornelisse, a science book by Smeets & Haring, a 2011 calender by Peter van Straaten
from Silvia: J2 and CSI coasters (handdrawn!), chocolate (including book) and a flashlight pig \o/

Happy Birthday to me!
My bestest friends had sent me packages. Mail doesn't ever get delivered on my birthday (which is of course an official holiday in The Netherlands;), but I saved them all like the good girl I am and didn't unwrap them until this morning. (Jelle sent me a message right after midnight telling me to open his present, I of course had to oblige;)
Look how well they all know me:

Pig on wheels made by Artistic_Sillie, so cute *cuddles*! Also chocolate, wahey!
Waterbottle and Reykjavik travel guide from Tanisafan; awesome!
John Barrowman (well, the book) from Jelle: can't wait to read it.
\o/
Thank you all (also to everyone who sent me paper or digital wishes and presents:)

Party-time!
Mom and brotherdearest came over around 13.30 for some (kiddie)bubbly and cake:

Hans opened the bottle very professionally. The cork ended up at the other end of my room, wahey!


Cake came from the best bakery in Dedemsvaart, nomnomnom. Notice how I made fancy sugar-decorated glasses for the strawberry-bubbly \o/

I had made reservations for dinner at 18.00. We walked to the restaurant and a couple of minutes later, Benthe arrived to join our party:) We ordered the Shizuan-menu for all of us.


Pekingsoup for starters was delicious. (Filled with egg, vegetables, duck)


Second course: eggrolls, beef and filled krupuk.


Maincourse: beef, pork, chicken and more beef, served with rice and noodles. Happy campers!


Couldn't get a picture of the scrumptious honeymelon (a treat on the house), it was gone so fast. Perfect.


Still life :-)


Oh how delighted we are with dessert. (SMILE!)


One final picture in front of the restaurant; it was brilliant. Oh, we also all received beautiful Chinese calenders as a souvenir:)


All tucked in for the film in the attic.
We had a great time watching Up (It was totally heartwarming;)

More presents:

Sandwichtoaster and recipes book from mom, West Wing S1 DVD from Hans and Benthe (Darwin book was belated Sinterklaas gift), card from the neighbours, Darwin DVD from mom, envelope with ridiculous amount of money from mom and dad, and last but definitely not least a coupon (BON) from mom to go do something chocolatey together (for instance making bonbons in Amsterdam).

It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. Thanks everyone!

It's my birthday!

Yay!


Diva


Party!


26 december 2008 is a couple of minutes old; I'm 39 \o/