The day after Christmas

Now that you’ve caught up I can wish all you Americans a Happy Christmas.

We had quite a lovely day yesterday … all the ‘boys’ (husband Colin, son Jeremy, and his friend Quin who has been staying with us for nearly 3 weeks!) helped prepare the food – after a few gentle hints. We dined on lavish salads, turkey, ham, prawns and stuffed zucchini flowers (!) – the last being Jeremy’s specialty – followed by plum pudding and a fairly heavily brandied sauce.

Several friends dropped in during the afternoon and we plied them with my now traditional peaches poached in orange juice plus ginger, brown sugar, cinnamon bark, lemon myrtle leaves, mint and a generous dollop of cointreau (the poaching liquid went well in a sort of sangria imitation). Oh, and marzipan dates and nuts and cherries and lychees and chocolate-coated ginger and … and … well too much really. Just as well I forgot to bring out the coconut ice (made to my mother’s recipe) and chocolate fudge (also laced with cointreau), and the festive-looking Christmas cake I made.

After that we drank champagne and nibbled some more. My champagne glass (which looked just like all the others) had a secret energy source which sent up an endless mini tornado of bubbles right till the end. It kept us mesmerised for a good ten minutes … by which time, of course, the champagne was flat and I had to have more.
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I’ve made it sound extravagant, but in truth, nobody over-ate or over-imbibed … we ate only smallish quantities of everything, exchanged modest gifts, and tried to avoid the excessive materialism rampant in our spoiled society.
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So Happy Christmas everybody and blessings on you and your loved ones, now and for always.