Christmas

Welcome to the last post of 2018. Christmas has been and gone, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were hosting the family shared lunch this year, with a total of 19 bottoms to seat (the other 15 members of the NZ resident family were doing their own things or had other commitments).

Monday, Christmas Eve, was our major preparation day. We had heavy rain overnight and a wet start so Nicky didn’t get the grass cut, but she did get wet doing a quick shop at our local supermarket. She also zipped over to the library in Henderson. Everywhere was heaving with people. I stayed at home and made my 3kg Christmas Pie and prepared my Christmas pudding reading to cook. Nicky also made a flummery dessert. While she was off at midnight mass, I started moving furniture. With having fewer numbers than usual, we had decided to seat everybody round our two library tables and Rattigan table arranged end-to-end. One of these tables normally lives in the garage so some box shifting was also required.

We started Christmas Day by opening our presents sitting up in bed whilst having our first pot of tea of the day. I noticed a subtle change with some of the gifts this year which is age related - practicality is becoming more important than aesthetics. After breakfast Nicky and I, with help from the laws of physics, brought the garage library table into the lounge and got the room ready. The weather forecast for the day did not appear to be compatible with me cooking on the BBQ, so at 11.30 I shelved that idea and prepared to cook on the hob. This turned out to be a good decision as around the time I was half way through cooking the steak (and bangers) the heavens opened. The driveway was evacuated and the garage door closed!

This years Christmas Pie - are they Christmas Trees or Holly leaves?

Nicky's sumptuous fruit dipping plate.

The "Long" Table

The cocktail lounge, decorated to look like a garage.

Pat makes a salad.

As ever we had a fantastic range of excellent food, and it was good to all sit down together round one (all be it large) table. After the main course we had a consumption break with the Secret Santa gifts, and then ploughed on into dessert. People started to depart mid-afternoon (I don’t think any of them were hungry even though we had forgotten to get the Christmas cake out to go with tea and coffee), but Stella, Steve, Ros and Mary stayed behind to help us move the table back into the garage, the sofa back into the lounge, but mainly to play Scrabble.

We had a late tea of LOB’s while watching Paddington on TV (which was just the right level of entertainment for our mood) before having a chat with Felicity in England and then toddling off to bed.

Boxing Day started cooler and greyer than I had expected, but turned into a dry day so loads of washing and daisy slaughtering was done. The garage was put back in order so that Luna could return to her usual home and Nicky started a jigsaw which she had been given.

Nicky was back at work on Thursday, doing a late shift. The trains are not running due to the holiday maintenance, so she is getting to work by bus. I dropped her down at the bus station before doing a raid on the supermarket to replenish essential supplies. More laundry and ironing was done, along with starting Lethal White, the most recent Cormorant Strike novel.

After four days at home on “household duties” and with Friday dawning a sunny day, I made myself a picnic lunch and went out to Karekare. The sun was lovely and the sea was fun, but the wind was chilly, so I didn’t walk as far as I had planned. 

Nicky used Luna to get to work yesterday, where the library was as quiet as it had been for the previous two days. I made mince pies but used some gluten free flour in the pastry - not a good idea. They taste OK, but fall apart a lot. We had a quiet evening an enjoyed a bottle of dessert wine that Stella had given us.

Today has been a lovely summers day - warm enough to sit in the shade. I went to Ladies Bay for a swim while Nicky was at church. She was accompanied home by Helen, Warwick and Jan, and shortly after they left Mary popped in and stayed awhile, so it was mid afternoon before Nicky ate her breakfast! (we are not counting the mince pie). The rest of the day has been gentle, and we finished off the Christmas pudding with tea. It was another good one.

Take care, Rick.