Christmas day 'English Stylie'

The last two years I have had Christmas day in Florida... mainly because my parents were coming for a holiday... and so this Christmas it was time for us to go back to them. Now Christmas over here is super hectic when my parents are here....it goes something like this...

6.30 am Leave for Mother in Laws house to arrive by 8am.... everyone converges (16-18?) for breakfast and present opening... then people go their respective ways...
10.30am... try to be leaving to get back to either 1. start making lunch or 2. get ready to go out for lunch
3pm... people either arriving for Christmas dinner or we are out the door, the four of us, letting a celebrity chef take the strain (last Christmas we went to Emeril Lagasse's in Orlando - you can read about it on my other blog)
8pm...comatose somewhere..

It's draining..... to say the least

Well its all change in England...

6.30am.. still sound asleep, no one peeping, cows gently mooing in the background, mentally challenged cockerel next door's body clock is up the shoot and he thinks dawn is 4pm ...excellent.
10am... Bacon butties all round and lots of hot tea and coffee..
11.30am .. walk to the pub for a Christmas morning drink....(and here is where the plan when a little skewy)

THE PUB WAS CLOSED

shame 'cause it looks like this inside!



Dad disgusted the pub was closed

Fam pic anyway... its -10C outside we might as well celebrate!

 Once over the horror of the pub being closed we remembered that fortunately for us the other pub (phew) was open, and within 10 mins of us arriving and snagging a table it was full.. (see other pub (CROWN, Hallow) you should have opened!). As it was so cold we HAD to have four drinks before we bundled back up and started the long (15 mins!) walk home!

Once back we busied laying the table, getting more drinks and helping Mom get all the dinner together...we sat down at abut 3pm...very civilised!
4.30pm... adjourn to lounge room to open presents ... we have never gone overboard, in fact I was surprised there was no comedy presents this year.. we must be finally growing up!...!
6 pm...a spot of dessert now dinner has gone down sufficiently...
7.30pm Brother & Fiance leave after having a sleep on the sofa..
8pm.. Hubby's niece says her goodnight.. jet lag finally catching up me thinks...
9pm .. Hubby gives up and goes to bed leaving me to watch Peep show with Mom & Dad...
11pm.. I finally haul myself up to bed.. happy and relaxed (that was probably the red wine and brandies though!)

 Tomorrow... London.... and they predict -12C for our 9am start...Brrrrrrr

This Christmas I’m channeling Martha Stewart…

There is a tradition in my husband’s family of giving gift bags aswell as presents at Christmas. When I first arrived in the family 7 years ago these used to be simple bags of little cute and cheap gifts and candy. I don’t know how they have somehow morphed into something that can end up costing more than the actual presents. This year, as with most of America, we were supposed to be cutting back on what we spent over Christmas, but I didn’t want to drop the gift bag tradition completely. Hmmmm, wracks brains (ouch) for something meaningful and reasonable…. My talents do not lie in arts and crafts, but I am a pretty good cook, so surely I could knock up some tasty treats for everyone?


Ok…so first, I had to decide what to make. I’ve never made jam, however my Mom always tells me how easy it is (and her strawberry is to die for), so jams it would be (and chutney, and marmalade!). I also made some chocolate dipped pretzels and fortune cookies…but these were the easy bit!


Ok…so what flavors..? Well I had to do some strawberry and as it happened strawberries were on sale this Christmas …next time though I’ll employ some small children to hull and chop the strawberries for me!

See my feet as I spend and evening hulling strawberries (yawn!!)

Next on the list would be some lemon and ginger marmalade. I had a glut of lemons in the fridge and a quick scan of the internet gave me a great easy recipe…ok..so that was two…what else? Ok some chutneys (actually an American friend of mine asked what a chutney was, Wiki describes it as an Anglo-Indian loan word for a class of spicy preparations used as an accompaniment for a main dish. Chutneys usually contain an idiosyncratic but complementary spice and vegetable mix. They usually are wet, having a coarse to fine texture. The Anglo-Indian loan word refers to fresh and pickled preparations indiscriminately, with preserves often sweetened – so now you know!!


I found an amazing recipe for mango & jalapeno – note to Gary, do not eat bit of jalapeno that mummy drops on the floor!!!...upset stomach ensued! And checking my fridge I had an abundance of onions and apples because the bags were two for one, so that was sorted then…apple & onion chutney (the internet is a wonderful thing!).


Well channeling my Martha Stewart I managed to produce 24 jars of jam, marmalade and chutney. There were some late nights, but do you know that I was a natural (even if I say so myself !) My favorites were the mango chutney (although next time I think that I’ll use frozen rather than fresh mango, they are seriously time consuming to peel and pit) and the lemon & ginger marmalade ..I’m very proud of myself!

I enjoyed making them so much I’m going to look for some other cool recipes to make, and I can guarantee that next year people will be getting some more of my creations!

Feels like Christmas at our house.....

Although I'm on my own at the moment I had all the Christmas lights on last night and felt very Christmasy....Husband won't be back at the house until Wednesday (I've left him to cope on his own in Jacksonville), so I'm here decorating, present wrapping, cleaning and getting things ready for my parents arriving on Wednesday evening... I don't go overboard in the house preferring some simple decor, candles and lights....would you like to see?

Outside I stick to white lights. Our house is tame to some of our neighbours who have completely overboard! I wonder how expensive their electric bill is during December!?

You can see we have a snowman too!

I made my own wreath last year and I have re-used this year (I'm not making another one my hands still bear the scars!!)

Inside we have this column...no body really knows why we have a column but Christmas is the only time I reall appreciate it! LOL

I decorate the bookcase with candles and all the fake (yes they are fake!) orchids with 'Christmasy' bits! I know this looks more like a temple to 'Gary' but what's wrong with that? LOL

The television unit gets it's own gold lit tree thing and a snowman I like to call 'Anne'...so really you call it a snow woman I suppose ..why do you call it Anne I hear you call...well they have the same pale palor ..(love you really Anne!). You can see I was watching the game last night whilst taking piccies...actually I was having a break from hulling strawberries, but more of that later in the week....

And then there is my beautiful Douglas Fir tree. This year the tree is in gold and red and the presents in a silver blue colour scheme...is it a bit anal to colour scheme your tree and presents?

View from door when you walk into our living room...and you can see the start of the present pile...I thought we were supposed to be cutting down this year?

The big long one is for Hubbie, but I can't tell you what it is in case he reads the blog!

Now you are probably wondering if Gary has any presents? Well don't worry, Gary has his own stocking and its rammed full of toys, chews and other goodies

Ok so now you've seen the decorations I know have to go and continue cleaning and readying the house for Mom & Dad

I'm making jams, chutneys and sweeties for everyone too....I thought this was supposed to be a holiday?

Need someone to mow the lawn, can pay you in cocktails in hot tub?