Christmas and a little bit of contemplation
To be honest I don’t know how to start this writing for today. We’ve just had our Christmas and here I am trying to summarise the day. But I’m just clueless and not sure where to begin.
I went to sleep very very late last night and my son kept trying to wake me up early in the morning.
“Mama, wake up! Santa ate all the cookies!” he showed me the empty plate with cookie crumbs on it.
I mumbled and tried to sleep more. But he kept coming with all his requests. After multiple failed attempts to go back to sleep, I decided to wake up and we opened the presents. I still feel guilty for not waking up early… I just couldn’t open my eyes for I slept way too late and I was still under the influence of the forbidden foods I ate yesterday and the day before.
My son was over the moon. He finally got his first watch which he proudly wore throughout the day. He also got a set of Ninjago Lego which he assembled by himself. None of these presents were in his letterina. It’s what the Italians call it when the little kids write letters to Santa and tell him what they wish to receive on Christmas. Well, we just couldn’t find the things he wanted so we bought him the substitutes. I asked him several times whether he liked the presents just to be sure.
He said, “But these things weren’t in my letterina.”
I asked, “Oh, really? Do you like it?”
“Yes!” he reassured us.
I actually bought a book about Christmas with the original story but I forgot to wrap it. It will be awkward to make it look like a gift when it’s already past Christmas.
As for me and my husband, we gave each other simple things. I gave my husband two jars of cookies and he gave me a pretty book by Kahlil Gibran and a pastel painting book which is really nice. My son also got one jar of cookies from me. lol.
For the lunch I made roasted potatoes, boiled green beans and rendang (a rich and tender coconut beef stew from Indonesia). I used the meat that I bought on Friday from the bio supermarket. Surprisingly the meat didn’t smell bad at all though it stayed in the fridge for three days. Of all the beef that I used for stew, by far this is the best. It’s so tender and flavourful. The herbs and spices that I used just made the taste even richer.
This is how it looks like in the pan. I still can’t believe that the meat was so good and tender. The coconut milk became explosively flavourful. My husband really loved pairing the potatoes and the sauce and almost finished it all by himself.
I think I should make a separate post to share the recipe. It’s an Indonesian dish so some of the ingredients may be hard to find abroad but I managed to tweak the recipe a little bit to match the original.
We were so full and I didn’t want to cook again for dinner. But my son had to eat. So I used the pastry dough I made two days ago and baked it in the oven and paired it with the wild smoked salmon.
My son really enjoyed this simple dinner. The ingredients for the pastry are parmesan cheese, eggs, butter and flour. It was really good and very easy to make.
Well, that was my Christmas day. I’m writing this with an awareness that my Christmas today has become so materialistic. Though I’ve been married for eight years, I still haven’t yet managed to adjust into this married life. My ideal Christmas would be just a simple one without the rush for preparing gifts and foods. Just me, dwelling deep in spiritual aspect of this momentous event, in silence. But I’m a wife and a mother and it’s impossible to do that unless I wake up super early in the morning and have that alone-time. While my family is still here, and while I’m still with them, I should be able to make Christmas feel like Christmas. Yet, here I am, many years later and still failed to make it happen.
Anyway, it’s already past midnight and I have to sleep…
