Christmas 2019

Tuesday, Wednesday 25-26 December, 2018

A nice dry day for Christmas. Lots for me to do. Luckily, I’d wrapped Krish’s presents the night before.  Christmas rituals – Christmas lights, Christmas candles, Christmas music.

The crazy thing was that, along with the two wrapped presents for Krish under the tree – OK, the poinsettia – there were four wrapped presents for me. This is actually the first time this has ever happened. He really has found the Christmas spirit, at least for this year!

Presents!
Presents!

Then I made eggnog as a surprise. Krish yearns for it every year.

I belong to three Facebook pages for Canadians. Two for London, one for the UK. Eggnog is a huge topic at Christmas, how everyone misses it, where can you buy it, if only there were eggnog… In a blog I read regularly, I found a recipe and decided to give it a go. It’s made with whole creamy milk, double cream, sugar, egg yolks, and nutmeg. I nailed it! It tastes perfect. A big hit!

First try at eggnog - nailed it!
First try at eggnog – nailed it!

And I made stuffing and cranberry rolls instead of sausage rolls this year. Sounds odd but stuffing in the UK isn’t the bread affair it is in Canada. It’s mostly sausage meat, with herbs and onions.  Some ready-to-cook stuffing topped with freshly made cranberry sauce and sealed all around. I actually really liked this. Lighter and less salty than a sausage roll. New favourite!

My presents were: Three books, and two espresso cups so I can start using my moka now – have been hesitating on that! The books were typical Krish choice – To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Unfinished Palazzo, and The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici. I’ve started on the introduction to the second.

My Christmas books
My Christmas books
Espresso cups
Espresso cups

For Krish this year I wanted to focus on memories – the egg nog is part of that. Then I got him a clockwork toy from Bazar Bonino in Torino, and a large box of meccano, which I saw advertised on the local neighbourhood site. All three were a really big success but I knew the meccano would shock and delight him – he was dumbfounded. I hope he makes something with it. I’ll never be able to top this gift.

German clockwork toy
German clockwork toy
Box of meccano
Box of meccano

We watched a lot of romantic Christmas movies. Silly ones. Krish was in charge of cooking. We had pork pie, some leftover quiche, and raw veggies for lunch and for dinner, a steak with mashed potatoes and some red cabbage. Food bulletin done. No photos of the plate before we started!

Time for a rest
Time for a rest

Boxing Day has been mostly quieter. I’ve done some organising and some catching up on this and that. And now we’re making the late Christmas dinner between us.  Stay tuned.

Dinner is done and Christmas proper is over for another year.

Traditional Chrismas dinner - roasted potatoes, turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, with gravy, cranberry sauce and pickles
Traditional Chrismas dinner – roasted potatoes, turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, with gravy, cranberry sauce and pickles
Mince pie, vanilla cream, cuppa tea!
Mince pie, vanilla cream, cuppa tea!
And we're done
And we’re done