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May the wonder of that first Christmas, the joy of God’s abundant blessings, and the peace of Jesus’ presence be with you always. May the true spirit of Christmas shine in your heart and light your path. May God bless your life with love and joy this holiday season. Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas. Greetings from Rob and Rowena. 😍😘 ☃️⛄️🎄🌲🎅🤶🎉🎊😘 ☃️⛄️🎄🌲🎅🤶🎉🎊  Nativity  Merry Christmas 😍😘 ☃️⛄️🎄🌲🎅🤶🎉🎊😘 ☃️⛄️🎄🌲🎅🤶🎉🎊  Table is ready...  Oven is now on... Goose, Turkey, Ham and Smoke Salmon for our Noche Buena.  Goose and veggies are roasting...  Attended the midnight mass and carol singing at Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran.  Mother Mary, baby Jesus and Joseph  With Reverend Father John Gilbert.  At Truro Cathedral  Walking on the street of Truro after the midnight mass. Noche Buena after the midnight mass and carol singing at Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran. Starter: Prawn Cocktail Noche Buena after the midnight mass and carol singing at Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran. Mains: Roast Goose and veggies Noche Buena after the midnight mass and carol singing at Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran. Dessert: Raspberry Panna cotta, Vanilla Cheesecake and Egg Tart  Bedruthan Steps Christmas day walk at the very scenic Bedruthan Steps. Christmas day walk at the very scenic Bedruthan Steps. Admiring the beauty of the rocks. Beautiful rock formations  Very steep cliffs Christmas Day Dinner Starter: Smoked Salmon, Lobster and Prawn Cocktail, Mixed Salad Christmas Day Dinner Starter: Smoked Salmon, Lobster and Prawn Cocktail, Mixed Salad Christmas Day Dinner Mains: Stuffed Goose and mixed veggies Christmas Day Dinner Mains: Stuffed Goose and mixed veggies Christmas Day Dinner Dessert: Lovely selection of English and Filipino sweets  We're just having Canapés this Boxing Day. Still stuffed with all the food from Christmas.
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Location: Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls The festivities continues with the young ones... Our 1st starter was LENTIL SOUP. Our 2nd starter was POMEGRANATE and CLEMENTINE salad. Our main course was NOODLES with PORK and CABBAGE and ROAST PORK with WILD RICE. For dessert, we have quite a few selections from CHOCOLATE CAKE, CHOCOLATE MOUSSE, MACARONI SALAD and the ULTIMATE CHEESEBOARD. I have 13 different kinds of ROUND-SHAPED FRUIT on my fruits tray. In the Philippines, 13 round fruits are traditionally are eaten on New Year’s Day since 13 is considered a lucky numbers. The best part is that fruits are filled with lots of vitamins and nutrients and can also protect against certain types of cancer. LENTIL is for luck. With their coin-like appearance, lentils are a natural symbol for luck. BLACK-EYED PEAS is for success. Black-eyed peas represent success because each pea represents a coin and a whole serving equals prosperity. PORK is for progress. Eating pork on New Year's Day symbolizes progress in several countries, as the pig is known for pushing forward. NOODLES is for longevity. A long noodle represents a long life. CABBAGE is for prosperity. Greens of any sort symbolize the almighty dollar. Have some cabbage and prosper in the New Year. POMEGRANATE is for good health. With so many delicious seeds inside a pomegranate, it's easy to understand how it represents an abundance of health, fertility and prosperity. ORANGES is for abundance. The Chinese culture considers oranges to represent good fortune, wealth and gold. In addition, oranges naturally ripen this time of the year, so you'll also enjoy an abundance of vitamin C. GRAPES is for happiness. Try the Spanish and Portuguese tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve - sweet ones supposedly lead to 12 happy months. Gold, Yellow and Brown are the colours for 2017, the year of the rooster. Location: Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls HAPPY NEW YEAR TO MY FAMILY, RELATIVES and FRIENDS!!! It’s been an enjoyable evening. Just me and Rob. We had our midnight dinner. Our 1st starter was LENTIL SOUP. Our 2nd starter was POMEGRANATE and CLEMENTINE salad. Our 1st main course was NOODLES with PORK and CABBAGE. Our 2nd main course was ROAST PORK and WILD RICE. We're sooo stuffed. We could not manage to eat the dessert. No more space in our tummy. We'll just have the CHOCOLATE CAKE, CHOCOLATE MOUSSE, MACARONI SALAD and the ULTIMATE CHEESEBOARD today. We’ll just be chilling out at home and we’ll continue eating the rest of our food. Yum yum yum… I have 13 different kinds of ROUND-SHAPED FRUIT on my fruits tray. In the Philippines, 13 round fruits are traditionally are eaten on New Year’s Day since 13 is considered a lucky numbers. The best part is that fruits are filled with lots of vitamins and nutrients and can also protect against certain types of cancer. LENTIL is for luck. With their coin-like appearance, lentils are a natural symbol for luck. BLACK-EYED PEAS is for success. Black-eyed peas represent success because each pea represents a coin and a whole serving equals prosperity. PORK is for progress. Eating pork on New Year's Day symbolizes progress in several countries, as the pig is known for pushing forward. NOODLES is for longevity. A long noodle represents a long life. CABBAGE is for prosperity. Greens of any sort symbolize the almighty dollar. Have some cabbage and prosper in the New Year. POMEGRANATE is for good health. With so many delicious seeds inside a pomegranate, it's easy to understand how it represents an abundance of health, fertility and prosperity. ORANGES is for abundance. The Chinese culture considers oranges to represent good fortune, wealth and gold. In addition, oranges naturally ripen this time of the year, so you'll also enjoy an abundance of vitamin C. GRAPES is for happiness. Try the Spanish and Portuguese tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve - sweet ones supposedly lead to 12 happy months. Gold, Yellow and Brown are the colours for 2017, the year of the rooster. Location: Pendower Beach, Roseland Peninsula Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls Went for a lovely walk in Pendower Beach with Kate today. Such a lovely weather. Sooo bright and sunny. We saw quite a few sea birds and a carcass of a young dolphin on the beach. After our lovely walk, we went back home to have dinner with Kate, Simon and Marc. Location: Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls Merry Christmas to one and all... Yehey it's Christmas day! I can now open my gifts! Thank you to everyone who sent me messages, cards and most especially to those who sent me these lovely gifts. Your thoughtfulness is much appreciated. Me and Rob had been busy cooking and preparing our Christmas dinner. It's so much fun doing it together. We're like kids playing. We thought we should do this every weekend. Hahaha... For starters, I had prawn cocktail with mary rose sauce and Rob had baked camembert with rosemary and honey plus garlic bread. For our mains, we both had my succulent, moist and juicy roast turkey with all the trimmings. I must say that my roast turkey is simply the best. For dessert... we're supposed to have... chocolate bombe for me and Christmas pudding for Rob but we're already sooo stuffed that we decided to have it later on. After all day, comes the best part - opening of gifts!!! Thank you to everyone who gave me some lovely pressie. My gorgeous stepdaughter Anna and Becky plus their friend Nick came over in the evening. We all had dinner together and some drinks too. It's really great to see them on this special day. We even had an enjoyable game of scrabble on which I won. Location: Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls Nochebuena is the Spanish word for Christmas Eve. In Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines, the evening consists of a traditional family dinner. In the Philippines, the traditional dinner comes at midnight after the family hears the late evening Mass known as Misa de Aguinaldo. For our Noche Buena, I've cooked a honey-glazed Ham with with pineapple and cherry, homemade apple sauce, wholemeal Da Bara bread, pickled chestnut, onion and beetroot, green and black olives, a luscious cheeseboard, macaroons, assorted pies, loads of different variety of fruits and a lot more... We had a feast!!! Location: Home Sweet Home, Grampound Road Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls Videographer: Rob Nicholls A few more hours and we're celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. The Castillo-Nicholls home is ready for the celebration. My dinner table is now set. Cheese board are all laid on the board plus biscuit, chutney, piccalilli, pate and pickles. Fruits are all in the basket and tray. Mixed nuts are on a jar and basket. Pastries and cake are on the tray. Mince Pie are on a plate. Got a gingerbread house too. My ham is now roasting in the oven. My turkey and lamb are marinating in the fridge. Wine, beer, cider and champagne are now cooling in the fridge. My Christmas tree outside is twinkling. Ohhh sooo excited! But it would have been best if I am with my family - mommy Angie Castillo, daddy Leon Castillo, brother Russel Castillo, sis-in-law Myla Castillo, nephew Gabriel Angelo and Miguel Angelo and sistah Rachel Castillo. How I miss you sooo much most especially at this time. Love you loads. Hope next year we are all together. |
Rowena
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