Fa la la la la

Boxing Day has dawned cold and grey pretty much like yesterday. Nothing like crappy weather to slice a little of the Christmas cheer away. Yesterday had all the ingredients of a fine Christmas - family, friends, presents and lovely food. I was a tiny bit disconnected as I had reignited my old back injury on Christmas Eve (putting towels in the linen cupboard), so was in pretty bad pain all day and found it hard to relax and enjoy myself. The good thing was that I had to keep active so ended up co-ordinating the present distribution, table setting (in part), dishes and dessert preparation etc. Nice for my mother to have a bit of a break as she has taken on her hosting duties with great energy and commitment. Had a great conversation with Louisa in the morning a chat with Karen and Anna and a visit from Alex, Oliver and Joseph, a family lunch then Marie-Anne and Martin for a delicious light evening meal. Dad had given me some pain killers for my back and although they dulled the pain it wasn't until MA doled out some more heavy duty jobs did I find any relief. Shame it kicked in about 9.30pm. Still a bit sore today but will be up at the chemist getting some more little white pills today. Aaaaah the relief. This is going to be a giant post so grab a coffee...

FOOD

This is the delicious green bean and feta salad I made for Christmas lunch. I used a citrus dressing for the warm beans then left them to cool. I crisped up the panchetta and sprinkled that along with the other ingredients and left it to rest. Other food delights of the day included bbq spit roast turkey. NOTHING beats this. Dad used the Jamie Oliver method of carving and the result was superb. My mother's Christmas pudding is by far the most delicious on the planet. It is an old family recipe that it is best not to know what is in it....a heart attack on a plate. Fresh new potatoes loving grown by my father....later used for an evening potato salad. YUM!

PRESENTS Nic and Ben received the presents of the day. My dad had made the both the most gorgeous treasure chests out of wood, leather, copper and whole lot of other stuff. Inside each one was an eye patch, chocolate money and other treasure, pirate hats and stickers and an 'x' marks the spot cloth. These photos don't do them justice but they really were gorgeous. Other good presents of the day for us included my new MP3 player, with tonnes of features my new slimline Samsung T10 is gorgeous. I loaded up a whole of stuff last night and spent an hour with my eyes closed on the sofa listening to 'my friends', long lost after leaving my last MP3 player on a plane in September (I hope the bastard who took it has choked on the headphone cord). I took a few risks this year buying three of my friends some art and decorative art. Instead of playing safe I thought I would try something different and loved doing that. I hope they loved what I did too. There are too many other things to describe without making this into the longest blog post in history.
PEOPLE Here are some shots from the day. My mother at the head of the table, relaxed and happy...

Having been up since 5.30, Nic was less than co-operative for the photos and this was one of the few printable ones from the day. He is still being a total s^&* as he just can't sleep in or take ONE minute out of his day to rest and revive, consequently today is proving to be very hard and it is only 9am!!

Delightful Olivia sharing some ballet moves and being a vision of serenity and happiness all day.

My dad wearing the very aptly labeled 'Grumpy Old Man' apron. Although he was the consummate host yesterday, bad table manners and wriggly children are not his bag.Three gorgeous boys at the beginning of the day. Oliver, Nicholas and Joseph looking very cool on the sofa.What an angelic pose from Ben. Amazingly for a three year old he kept that white shirt white all day. Yay Ben. Didn't eat his lunch though but there you go...well just the chipolata which he tried out in his eye first...

Finally a few pics from around the house. This is the embarrassingly sad Christmas tree especially for Louisa who needs a laugh. Having red walls in our lounge is really just a year long Christmas decoration waiting for some bling.

The mantelpiece in the dinning room with a few of the lovely red cards we got this year

Right, I need to get on as we are having Jonty's family over for turkey and trimmings tonight so I need to get the dishes done and start planning the menu...a bit behind myself today but it should be pretty easy with excessive amounts of food in the fridge and pantry. I hope everyone had the Christmas day they desired. Love Sally