One of my favorite things about Christmas is… Christmas dinner. What’s not to love? Friends, food, and sometimes, exchanging presents.

Of many Christmas dinner I’ve had, I feel that I should write this one, so in the future I can remember exactly how I felt. There was nothing really extravagant or sophisticated about this dinner. Rather, it was peaceful compared to the others, given that it was only Maša and me. But honestly, this was one of the best Christmas dinners I’ve had.

Maša and I have spent a good deal of time together, and she’s the person who’s been with me all along, good times and bad times. Spring break in Ljubljana and Bled, frantic exam period, summer, you name it. Back in May, I went to the library everyday, and there was always emergency meeting/coffee break/consultation session with her each day. Even when she was in Mexico this summer and I was stuck in Southampton doing my dissertation, we kept updated with each other’s daily life, sometimes also keeping each other’s from doing fatal mistakes. She makes sure I eat when I can’t function, drags me out of bed when I least want it (which just proves that I most likely need it), comes to my house with a box of chocolate when I have a bad day, gets me out of my comfort zone by dragging me to dance lessons, laughs with me and at me (sometimes simultaneously), and does everything to make sure I’m safe and happy at all time. We share a ridiculous amount of dirty secrets and inside jokes, cakes and pies (because having one each is unacceptable for diet, and yet we sometimes can’t resist), and so many other things. She’s one of the very few people whose weirdness matches (if not exceeds) mine, and the one who encourages me to be crazy.

Which is probably why this dinner was special for me.

We played Christmas music and danced around while waiting for the roast in the oven, taking crazy pictures which Maša had me sworn not to show to anyone. We also took good pictures though.

And also, since she’s obsessed with pineapple (probably the way I’m obsessed with trees and postcards), she went all out with her creativity, a pineapple Christmas tree (or Christmas pineapple?).

We went for salmon with cream cheese and prawn cocktail for the appetizer.

And everything we fancied for the main course. Yorkshire pudding with gravy, roasted pork belly with apple sauce, roasted sweet potatoes and peppers. Dessert was, of course, Christmas pudding with vanilla cream. So, so, so good.

When we were cooking, we said, ‘Wow, these are enough to feed the entire village,’ and by the time we finished, we said in disbelief, ‘We ate those all? ALL? Nothing left?’

In our defense, it’s Christmas. We’ve been saying this since two weeks ago, but whatever. My housemate said Christmas was expensive. I say Christmas is too many calories.

But I’ll do my redemption in January. For now, I’m happy with this.