Boxing Day...

Last year we celebrated an early Christmas Day in September complete with decorations, carols, full Christmas Dinner and presents.  For John and I it was the first of four Christmas Dinners we were to have last year so we ended up feeling like the Vicar of Dibley by the end of them.  

We were not unhappy when Stan requested that we did an early Boxing Day this year which for us means a walk and Cornish pasties followed by a game of something.  Sadly the weather forecasters got it right and it was a changeable and quite miserable day so our walk had to be shelved.  Whilst Stan and John went down to Emba to pick up Mum, I settled Jackie and Janet down in front of the television where they could watch the exciting conclusion to this year's Ryder Cup.

The table was all set and ready with the good old Christmas Table Cloth brought out for the occasion.  My sister could probably tell me exactly how old that tablecloth is.  Years ago she bought a long length of Christmas material and had it made into a number of cloths, one of which went to Mum either directly at the outset or I gave her mine and she has subsequently given it back!

Anyway you know me I like to dress a table so John and I had a bit of a difference of opinion about doing the name places as I wanted to so in the end we didn't have any!

My lovely friend Gail had given me a present some time ago which was a pair of Cornish Pasty earrings so today was the perfect day to wear them.  They were a little on the heavy side but went with my new Christmas Jumper (courtesy of the Clan) but after about 10 minutes of wearing the jumper I was far too hot so had to revert to a Christmas T-Shirt instead.

Mum arrived safe and sound and we put the Olds in the conservatory whilst John and I got everything sorted in the kitchen.  I had made mulled wine yesterday, then it had tasted pretty uninspiring but thankfully letting it steep overnight and giving it a slug of brandy seemed to have done the trick - if nothing else it made the house smell Christmassy.  I had made the pudding earlier this morning, a self-saucing lemon pudding but I couldn't find the recipe I usually use which was a bit of a bugger.

Oh god the Pasties were a bloody challenge too - I had made them and kept them chilled in the fridge which I never do - I normally make them and freeze them so they seemed to take an age to cook and even then only some of them puffed up - others sort of gave up the ghost and split.  In the end I decided I needed to cook three in the oven and three in the microwave oven if we were ever going to sit down and eat together.   John says I fuss too much but when you have gone to time and effort you just want everything to be perfect - or at least I do.  Anyway they tasted better than they looked and even though we had piled in the black pepper you couldn't really taste it too much and the swede probably needed to have a frost on it to give it a bit more flavour.

So here we are - the dream team, or at least a mirror image - I am wearing one of John's Christmas T-shirts and he is wearing the new one that his mum brought over.

John did all the Olds entertaining whilst I cleared up the kitchen and got the pudding ready which, even though it was not the recipe I normally use and which looked like it had absorbed all the sauce actually turned out to be the best I have made so far and went down a storm.  A nice light end to the meal and the sharp flavour went perfectly after the savoury pasties.

At a suitable point in the proceedings we then gathered everything and everyone up to decamp to The Corner House where Mum could have a change of scenery and we could play the Present Game aka Sac Magique...  Everyone bar Mum had done the obligatory trip to Jumbos tat shopping (I did Mum's for her) and then wrapped the gifts in newpaper and deposited into the magic sack.  That had been early in the week so I couldn't actually remember which parcels were mine!

We had a riotous time playing the game.  Big thanks to the Cyprus 23 for introducing us to their format which is such a great way to play the game (instructions will follow).  Big thanks to to Jackie and Janet for providing an additional gift of a pair of Christmas socks to everyone.

I took Mum home, leaving the others to enjoy the exciting conclusion of the Ryder Cup.  I think I got in just to see it ending!  Anyway well done Team Europe.  I collapsed in the sofa with a large glass of wine - my first of the day - I was exhausted!!!

Sac Magique Instructions...

1. Get a large sack and two packs of playing cards.

2. Get all players to purchase at least three gifts from an agreed sum of money (we had 15 euros).  At least three must be purchased but more if funds allow.

3. Wrap all gifts in the same paper (we used newspaper) use boxes to disguise if necessary

4. Deal one pack of cards amongst all players - depending on numbers not everyone will get the same amount of cards - this doesn't matter.

5.  Chose one player to be the dealer.  They will deal one card from the second pack of cards and the player holding that card in their hand (which could be the dealer) will chose a gift from the sack.  Continue until all the gifts in the sack have been won by which point the players will have a differing number of gifts in front of them and still have cards in their hand.  If a player has little or no gifts but plenty of cards left in their hand they will actually benefit in the long run...

6.  The dealer continues to deal one card from the second pack and the holder of that card can then steal a gift from another player.  This continues until all the cards from the second pack have been dealt and presents distributed.

7.  We then like to open the parcels in turn and try and guess who purchased the contents.  Once all the presents have been opened there can be some negotiation about swapping particularly if something has been purchased with someone specific in mind.

ENJOY!!!