Christmas Day 2022

So we made it to Christmas Day.  John and I were up early to do the last remaining bits of food prep and house prep before setting off to the Droushia Heights Hotel for our annual Christmas Day Drinkie.

Dad would have approved.  He loved to go to the Hotel before tackling Christmas Lunch.  It would always be his treat.  We had early morning rain but it cleared sufficiently that we managed to walk down.  I had to dig my raincoat out but by the time we arrived at the cemetery I was hot!

We paid our respects and checked the plants - everything was in order.  Several other families were visiting relatives and we nodded to each other as we left.  We had organised to meet Mum and Lilian at the hotel and we were being joined by Nicky and Mark and Nicky's mum Liz and her partner Bill.  It was chaos - we have never seen it so full!  We managed to squeeze ourselves in on the end of a table and grabbed some additional chairs so that as people arrived they could be accommodated.

The Cypriot family next to us could see our predicament and kindly squeezed up to ensure that our party of 8 could sit together.  By this time the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was bucketing down.  This was not what had been forecast but it wasn't going to make a lot of difference to us because once home we would be warm and cozy because John had already lit the wood burner and had it banked up in readiness for our return.

It was a good start to the day.  It was nice to have other people there to make conversation and Bill engaged Lilian for quite some time which was nice.  She said she likes meeting new people which is good because when we go to the Farmyard on New Year's Day we are being joined by Richard and Ellen.  Or at least we are supposed to be - poor Rich is still poorly which is a nightmare for him as they have family visiting.

We may not have had a massive pile of presents but what we did have were lovely, thoughtful and a few home made.  This little heart came from our neighbour Gail.  Nicky made homemade chocolates and sweeties and Sonia gave us some homemade fudge.

John and I both had gift bags from Janet, Jackie and Stan.  Poor Stan has just tested positive with Covid so he and Jackie have had to cancel all their plans for the festive season.  This is such a shame.  Anyway we have to thank them for our gifts - perfume and aftershave are things which we love but are not high on our list of priorities when it comes to expenditure so when family and friends are kind enough to gift them to us we are super happy.

I think it is fair to say that this, my third and final cooking of Christmas Dinner in 2022, was by far my best effort.  Having now got the right amount of prep done in advance and got my timings sorted I am reasonably stress-free.  To buy time today we had a starter, inspire by John, which was a Yorkshire Pudding filled with caramelised onion, brie and cranberry with a sprig of fresh mint and a lettuce leaf for a bit of greenery.  It was yummy!

We had limited our gifts today to a maximum of 5 euros per present.  We had all had some fun trying to find things for that amount of money, things which people would appreciate - it really isn't as hard as you might think - we all seemed to do very well with what we received.  Lilian is keen to travel so John gave her an 'Adventures' jar and started off her fund with a euro!

Our exchange of presents was followed by our main course which, even if I do say so myself, was absolutely spot on and yummy.  We had turkey and gammon, pigs in blankets, stuffing, bread sauce, roast potatoes, green beans, peas, roasted carrots, cauliflower, parsnip, sweet potato and onion, red cabbage and a white wine gravy.  We followed this with my invisible apple tartlets and cream.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy what they had and Mum ate a very good meal.

After playing the present game (I had bought all the gifts, courtesy of the Christmas decoration section of Jumbos) we called it a day and Lilian took Mum home.  Mum seemed quite tired by the end of it all.  She does seem to be slowing down a lot more now and can look quite frail at times.  She is also constantly freezing so our house was probably visible from space and Lilian and I were taking it in turns to go into the garden for some fresh air!

John and I cleared up and packed everything away and settled down for a nice quiet evening with a glass of wine and the cats.  We indulged in some trash TV - The Darts from AllyPally and the World's Strongest Man from the Albert Hall, then the animated film about the Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse which actually didn't grab me quite as much as I thought it would we finished off by watching the Celebrity Masterchef Christmas Special which was great fun and finished off the evening beautifully.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do a bit of a walk and then return to Mum's for the pasties I made the other week.  After tomorrow I am having a rest from cooking until the New Year.  I think I deserve it.