Christmas

16 December

Karen brought our grand niece, Kaylee to visit.  What a breath of fresh air she is.  Always smiling and very happy to pose for photos.

18 December

The Sunday before Christmas was spent with our Dutch friends, Co and Evelyn.  They made us a wonderful three course meal that ended with Co producing a flaming Baked Alaska. This set the tone for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 December

Christmas Eve was spent with Daryl and Karen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25 December

Christmas Day started with my husband Les and I getting up at 5 am to prepare food as we had invited some friends and family for a Christmas dinner.  Les, inspired by Co’s marvellous Baked Alaska, very ambitiously decided to make some beer bread as well as stuff and cook a turkey.   Bear in mind that Les has never stuffed a turkey before and has only made bread once before.

I set the tables, made the trifle and prepared a leg of lamb.  By 9.30 am I was worn out and put my feet up for an hour before everyone arrived.

Les in the meantime ploughed on.  By 10.30 he came to have a shower, looking very pale and stressed.  He hadn’t realised how much work was involved in preparing a turkey.  Wow!  He had made the stuffing, put it inside the turkey and got it all onto the Weber in time!  What a titanic effort and what a titanic mess in the kitchen.  Flour, egg shells and pork sausage were all over the counters.

I shovelled all the debris into the dirtbin and washed the counters down, with only minutes to spare before the guests arrived.  Whew!  Just in time.  I somehow feel that next year we will do a lot more the day before (didn’t we say that last year?).  Everyone seemed to enjoy the lunch.

28 December

I am currently reading a book called ‘What the Dog Saw’ by Malcolm Gladwell (who also wrote ‘Outliers’) kindly given to me by Daryl and Karen.  It discusses very mundane issues that have had an amazing impact on our lives. Both books are great reads and very enlightening.

Garth and Bronley went Husky Sledding in Finland and are now on their way to Prague.  Tomorrow will be -4C in Prague, so I hope they took lots of warm clothes.

Only three days left of 2011.  What will 2012 bring?