How the Real Housewives of Cheshire celebrated Christmas
THE Real Housewives of Cheshire stars celebrated Christmas in their own inimitable style.
This year Nermina Pieters-Mekic and her husband Erik were looking forward to having their families stay for Christmas at their new home in Wilmslow.
Their Christmas included traditions from Bosnia and the Netherlands.
Nermina, who became a Real Housewife in 2017 and was one of the main stars in series six and seven, is now a guest star in the show.
She was born in Bosnia and emigrated to the Netherlands as a child.
She married Dutch footballer Erik, who plays for Burnley, in 2016.
Erik and Nermina’s parents, Nermina’s brother Murad Mekic and Erik’s sister Lisette Pieters were due to join them and their beloved pet boxer dog Simba, Blue, a Maltese, and adorable pups Luca and Archie, who Nermina found abandoned on the streets during a recent visit to Bosnia.
Singer and model Nermina, who was on a promotional trip to her birth country, organised vaccinations, paperwork, passports and microchipping to bring them home with her.
Today there is a a trip to Goodison Park to watch Erik and his team take on Everton.
Newlywed Hanna Miraftab and her husband Dr Martin Kinsella will be getting into the spirit of Christmas with a visit to Chatsworth House and they planned to have friends round for drinks and mince pies around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Day their families on both sides gathered for a traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings at their home, to raise a toast to Hannna and Martin’s first Christmas as Dr and Mrs Kinsella.
Tanya Bardsley planned to have about 20 people over for Christmas, but she left the cooking to a caterer. The entrepreneur wife of footballer Phil Bardsley, who has daughter Gabriella, 17 and sons Rocco, 10, Renz, seven and three-year-old Ralphi, said: “I get a chef for 20 as I have a hammer and tools trying to figure out how to get toys out of wrappers - you need a science degree with some of them.”
After moving house, Leanne Brown, the wife of former Manchester United player Wes, planned to spend Christmas at her new home in Cheshire with her family - and she joked that she was ‘off the hook’ as her sister-in-law was due to do the cooking.
Fellow former
Housewife Lauren
Simon was taking part in not one but two fitness bootcamps in Marbella.
The perfumer, who left the show last year after series eight, said: “I stopped working out and found myself getting lazier.
“I’m really proud of myself and I’m in a good space. I’m choosing healthy options and eating protein and vegetables when I’m usually on the beach with chips.
“I wanted to go into the new year feeling healthier.”
One of the original Housewives, Magali Gorre, the wife of former footballer and Dutch football coach Dean Gorre, has described her cosy family Christmas at home with her family. Magali, the proud mum of three sons Kenji, Aidan and Quinten, said: “We choose not to go to a restaurant but to celebrate it at home.
“Dean is a very good cook and I’m very good at making the table nice.
“In the morning we come downstairs, having a nice table set up again, and have breakfast Facetime with Kenji because he is with his girlfriend in Milan.
“We say lovely things to each other and we are not going overboard with presents at all. We think more about health and no stress about what to buy or go crazy with presents.”