Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a magical time.

I wasn’t with my family this Christmas – my sister has moved to London and my mom and dad stayed in Johannesburg, but I spent Christmas with my friends and my new family – my in laws.

It’s my first and last Christmas as a fiancé! How exciting to think that next Christmas I’ll be a Mrs!

Let’s go back a few days leading up to Christmas…

We decorated our tree… we stuck to a red, white and silver palette.

I decided to go for Christmas nails at Fox Box – a little candy cane detail on my ring fingers.

We have enjoyed delicious meals and glasses of wine/bubbles with friends and we are really enjoying the gorgeous Summer weather…

No editing this photo… just a blue, blue sky!

I’ve been playing around with the Snapchat Christmas lenses! If you’re keen to follow me, search for BaileyVanilla – I do videos and content that’s not seen anywhere but Snapchat.

I’ve FaceTimed my Mom, Dad and Duke…

and Karolina and Gabriel who blew me kisses and I melted.

On Christmas Eve I was feeling a little sad missing my family, but Sox was unbelievable in making me feel better and getting my Christmas Spirit back up. We wrapped Christmas pressies to Christmas music, and then we went out to buy Santa hats and festive flowers.

I cooked us a delicious meal, we drank wine and then watched the movie Love Actually.

On Christmas morning I woke up all excited.

I padded through to the kitchen to make tea and cappuccinos and cut the Stöllen and put out the Lebkuchen (biscuits)… Not sugar free or Banting friendly, but I gave myself the day off and continued my tradition.

Sox and I sat around the Christmas tree, with Christmas music and opened our gifts!

I got utterly spoilt with amazing, thoughtful presents.

We quickly dressed and met up with one of Sox’s best friends, Marc and his Goddaughter Sloane for coffee and gifts. Children really do make Christmas even more special and it was wonderful to spend an hour with her on Christmas morning.

 My best was seeing Uncle Sox trying to free the doll from it’s packaging! I laughed so hard.

After a Christmas coffee, we walked home, showered, gathered the gifts for the family and headed off for Christmas lunch.

My mother in law, Dimitra loves Christmas decor and she made the table very festive!

The Greeks are not shy of food and there was the most delicious lamb…

Salads that I had made and brought with…

Roasted sweet potatoes and butternut

Greek Moussaka (with zucchini instead of brinjal because I’m allergic.)

Gammon…

Christmas is not about whats under the Christmas tree, it’s about who’s around it. I’m really glad we spent it with Sox’s mom and dad…

Let’s also not forget… Happy Birthday Jesus!

I hope you all had a wonderful time!