Christmas and New Year

Thomasenmadrid has returned for the New Year! I would like to wish you all the best for 2008 and I hope you enjoyed the holidays.

This year, as always, I went to my parents’ house in High Easter, Essex, England, to celebrate Christmas. It was great. My mother, you see, is the original Christmas machine, churning out minced pies with her right hand whilst filling stockings with the other. Things haven’t changed much over the years but my mum must posses some magical success formula because everybody keeps returning.

It was more of the same this year, with Christmas dinner in suits, Midnight mass, mulled wine, stockings, too many presents, salmon and champagne, Winking Murder, Party Poppers, playing games, Boxing Day at Auntie Ann’s and my Dad’s famous after Christmas bubble and squeak.

However, things were a bit different this year. By far the most important was the introduction of a new Family Reeve Christmas Tradition: the making and baking of a gingerbread house. I learned this tradition in Sweden from my lovely neighbour Dana (who kindly supplied me with the necessary pepperkakor dough to construct the masterpiece). The principal design and building work was done by me and my brother-in-law Alex although my father was anxiously looking over our shoulders as building site supervisor. In the end he contributed with a steady icing sugar performance. For New Years, I skipped over to Holland with my sister, Alex, and two friends John and Debbs who accompanied us to The Hague where we would celebrate the New Year. My brother was already waiting for us and we would be joined by his girlfriend Ernestine and another friend of mine Clan for the actual New Year party at our house.The remaining days I spent looking up old friends and this was great fun. I saw my The Hague friends Luwe, Guus and Folkert in Rotterdam. Luwe now lives in the best apartment Rotterdam has to offer and we headed into (or down to as he lives on the 29th floor) town for some beers and sate. I had already met my old Swedish friend Ulrika with her Dutch boyfriend for seaside pancakes in Hoek van Holland. Later that day I also dropped by to say hello to Carmen’s Dutch family who received me brilliantly. The first day of the year was mostly spent with Asaf and his friends. We developed a business plan for a soon-to-be-released magazine. These are the things you do on January the first.

Anyway, I wish you all the best and please take a look at my new photo website for more Christmas and New Year photos: picasaweb.google.com/reeve.thomas