First Christmas & Vegan Cheese Platters

We had a wonderfully simple little Christmas at last!

We spend the morning of Christmas Eve, which was a scorching hot day on the beach swimming & playing with Faye.
Sydney is always very quiet this time of year and it just adds to the beauty of spending Summer here.
Everyone was cheery on the streets and wishing each other happy holidays.
After our swims, I spend the day in the kitchen preparing vegan cheeses (recipes below!) for our Christmas Cheese platter. Hooray for social media:
Thanks to awesome vegan Mum's and friends made on Instagram (I am looking at you, @Plantbasedmumma) I had all these delicious recipes recommended to me and finally had my first go at making cheese. It was easy peasy and I might have started a nice little Xmas dinner tradition here.

Faye got a wooden push wagon in the shape of a cow, which she adores. She has been practising her first steps with this all week long. :)
But let's be honest the actual unwrapping and excitement of the box itself was the biggest thing for her. Uhm, and probably for me too.
Dalston got a very special Christmas dinner, including cranberries and a baked chocolate angel cookie. He ate it all so quickly, it was hard to document. Puppies, you know?
Dave & I got to unwrap a Coco Jack, my gift to us. Happy Vegan Christmas, right?
We immediately cracked some Coconuts open and this really made my day.
You know, I could totally just live of fresh fruit & coconuts all summer?
It was such a special day and all my worries in the morning were totally unjustified.

Christmas Eve came and I felt a little underprepared...to say the least.
My heart sank in the morning and I felt a little disappointed.
I have been waiting for this special time of year but without a tree (my last-minute regret), few decorations, the apartment in chaos and scary to-do list for the holidays...I hadn't baked cookies or crafted any decorations...I needed to take a deep breath.
Dave promised me that next year we are going to have a tree and a full-on decked out Christmas. Which got me excited for the year ahead.
You see, being from Northern Europe Christmas is kind of a big deal for me.
Growing up it was always this magical time with so many traditions and I hope to be able to create the same for little Faye in all the years to come.
But then- I managed to let ALL that pressure go for now to make the most out of what we have here right now! A healthy, happy baby, pup and so much love in this family.
We also had a few pretty baubles, a mini tree made from fabric & wood and my Mum's handmade candles. We listened and sang along to cheesy Christmas songs....
Which made for a wonderfully simple little Christmas. And Faye loved all of it.
How good is Christmas with babies & kids around???

I learned that it really doesn't take much to have a fabulous time!
I hope your holidays were rather special too.

Vegan Cheese Recipes:
I made three different vegan kinds of cheese, all of which had different ways of preparing.
One is baked and also had to drain overnight, one is cooked&thickened and one simply just blended and ready to go.
The recipes were all spot on and I just made slight modifications.
I added 1 red chilli to the cranberry cheese recipe for example and improvised here and there.
My cheese "Ball" also turned into a wheel instead.
I highly recommend trying these in variations with different herbs & spices but for now, I leave you with the original recipes. These were all especially festive.

Baked Almond Feta
Vegan Cranberry Cheese
Lemon Cranberry & Pistachio Cashew Cheese Ball
 

And last but not least: Thank you all for following along!
We will be back in 2018 and wish all of you a great start to the new year!