Happy New Year, one and all! Now that the festive season is safely behind us, I might as well tell you: my family takes Christmas incredibly seriously. More specifically: we take Christmas food incredibly seriously. I'm pretty sure that collectively, the four of us gain the weight of a small child.
We stay up late on Christmas Eve to do any food prep needed for the next day, such as boiling and roasting the traditional Christmas Day ham. This year we also decided to prepare our stomachs for the big day with a melted Camembert and sharpen our minds with a particularly taxing game of Trivial Pursuit. (Sadly, my dad tends to wipe the floor with all three of us womenfolk. T.P. is stacked in favour of old people. I'm sure of it).
On Christmas morning my sister and I open our stockings and then go downstairs to ooh and aah over the presents under the tree. When we were kids we did all of this at 4 AM. Poor Mum and Dad. Now we tend to rise at a much more civil 11 AM...
We check that Santa has eaten his mince pie, taken his treat for the reindeer and drunk his tipple of choice. He seems to rather enjoy a tot of Baileys.
Next we make sure the dining table is attired in a suitably festal manner and start preparing food for Christmas lunch. Snacking along the way, of course. It's hard not to when you've got a prime cut of Hansen & Lydersen salmon just begging to be served with crème fraîche and blinis...
While the roast meats (duck and turkey this year!) are in the oven, we gather around the tree for the best bit: present opening!
Here's a few of my favourites from this year...
A leather wallet and notebook that smell delicious.
Isabel Marant earrings.
A bevy of wonderful books. The Bone Clocks was my Christmas Day read and I can highly recommend it: a marriage of thriller and fantasy that had my fingers glued to the novel all the way through Boxing Day and beyond.
Susanne Kaufmann goodies.
Sunscreen from Bri. One of my New Year's resolutions is to wear this every day. More on my resolutions in an upcoming post...(maybe).
Alex and I made stockings for each other this year, and the highlight of his was this phone case! So utterly perfect for me. The boy knows me well.
And my favourite of all, this black leather rucksack. I'd been searching for one for ages but my parents found this one and it's perfect. Smart enough to take to work, but practical too - I need a bag that won't damage my back.
After present-opening merriment Bri and I worked together to make a pavlova. The meringue should really be made the night before, but this year we forgot completely. I blame Trivial Pursuit.
At about 4PM, it's time for Christmas dinner! Lunch? Feast?? It's such a weird in-between time that no one really knows...Next comes a whirl of delicious food, drink, cracker-pulling and general conviviality.
After dinner we watch a spot of Christmas TV and movies (this year, Frozen and Miracle on 34th Street) and when the effects of our gluttony have worn off slightly, we decorate and serve the pavlova.
And that concludes Christmas 2014! Bit of a late post on my part, but I'd love to know anyway - what did you get up to this year (well...last year?) Do you have any Yuletide traditions?
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