I celebrate the passing of yet another year with loved ones. Of our ups and downs and we celebrate being together for a nice dinner (this year we are eating "ragout of chicken" and "Konijn op zijn Limburgs" (rabbit Limburg style) with pommes duchesse and poached gieser wildeman pears.
The feeling of kerst is enhanced by a nice kerstboom (kerst-tree), this year and nice red (last year blue/pastel green)
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The star on top is not religious, it was a toss up, between the usual "piek"
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and this star but as the star was bought new together with other red things (birdcage, cupcakes, etc, pumps, ice-skates) we chose to put the red star on, next year we will most likely have a golden, silver, blue, or one of the other 2 or 3 colors we have kerstballen for (decorations) for. I used to work for a store selling christmas decorations. I had the luck that the manufacturer would only accept unused boxes back from the store so they sold it to us employees for 3 dollars or so for an entire big bag full of decorations.
Add to that cooking together and baking together adds to the festive and relaxed feeling of our version of kerst.