Every creature was stirring, including the mouse!
The children who should be nestled up tight in their beds
Instead were making the grown ups hold onto their heads!
Pah, I fib... we had a lot of fun at this festive time! We made mince pies with the girls, and they put their initials on so that Father Christmas knew who made which one. Then they trotted off for a bath, when they came out we realised that I had forgotten the pyjama's I had lovingly made for them. Thankfully Father Christmas was very clever and had picked them up, wrapped them and dropped them off under the Christmas Tree when no one was looking!
They then insisted on getting into their Christmas Sacks before we laid them out with the Santa Trap (a string of bells that will jingle when he moves them!) on top of them!
As you can tell by the movement they were a little excited! Thankfully Grande reading (the real) Night Before Christmas poem settled them down nicely and they were ready for bed. They eventually went to sleep at around 8.30 pm but hey, it's Christmas Eve!
The adults then sat down to a Seafood Feast:
Between 5 of us this was all that was left!
We is bloaters but it was gooooooooooood! I was most proud of myself for cooking the Lobsters, they were very very fresh too! There was a wuss moment when the bag moved rather too much for us all to cope but once Mum was hidden (she isn't a wuss except when it comes to this sort of thing!) they were despatched pretty easily. Paul shucked Oysters for the first time and I tried one for the first time since I was a student and my then boyfriend and I dared each other to eat one, and they were actually very nice, so I had another! All in all we ate the very best part of 3 lobsters, 12 oysters, 1 huge platter of prawns, 1 huge bowl of mussels and a platter of langoustine, 1 bowl of salt crusted potatoes and a large variety of dips. Nom!
Father Christmas arrived in a whirl of green and red tissue paper, he got a little drunkled on the scotch we had left him. Possibly caused by his elf encouraging him to neck it but hey! The reindeer enjoyed their carrots and Father Christmas very much enjoyed the homemade mince pies. He even left the girls a little present on their plate as a thank you for his snacks.
The next morning Phoebe was beyond excited and was desperate to come downstairs to see if he had been! I managed to get down slightly before her and captured this:
She was so pleased he had been and it was just magical to see! Clara was slightly less excited but never the less delighted when she spotted the presents!
Phoebe was absolutely delighted that Father Christmas had managed to get her much requested (from the 21st onwards...) Slinky Dog! The other hit pressies were Pop Up Pirate and a fishing game. They also got travel aqua draw mats, toy animals, fizzy bath bombs with mermaids in them and a variety of other goodies that will keep them occupied for a while to go!
It was then I realised my camera was running low on battery and I hadn't packed the charger...Doh!
Once we had breakfasted on scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and croissants we started on the tree presents. I was a very lucky girls too and got a lovely chocolate brown Slanket... mmmmm snuggly! I also got 2 sewing books from the girls. My stocking had more sewing books and a stack load of Cath Kidson sewing bits, a gorgeous bling top, a yoga Wii game, new pjs and a couple of gorgeous Esprit tops too. I was also a very lucky girl and got enough John Lewis Vouchers to cover a sewing machine upgrade, so I am happily looking at the sewing machine porn available on their website! Paul got a ski boots (and was permitted to use them from our arrival as I am a kind and generous soul) and a load of goodies too. He was also a lucky boy!
Then we headed up the mountain for Phoebe's second skiing lesson. This didn't go very well and she bailed about 20 minutes in after falling over and allegedly hurting her leg. Anyway we then sent Paul off for his first solo ski and headed off to the restaurant where we were meeting our family friends the McCarthys for Christmas Lunch. I had something with Reblochon (a local soft brie like cheese.... yum!) and I think balsamic vinegar, we couldn't identify the other ingredients but it tasted delicious! Followed by roast pork (no crackling) and chips, very nice but not enough sauce IMO!
When we got home from skiing we had some time playing with the toys. Once the girls were (eventually) in bed Mum provided a divine meal of Roast Beef, Roast veg, Sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts followed by Semifreddo with Nougat with a homegrown, homemade raspberry couli. And Lo, it was gooooooood!
I hope your Christmas celebrations were as joyous and as fine as ours!
1 comment:
Aw, it looks like a really lovely Christmas. Very jealous of the seafood spread.
I'm loving your blog, it's ace! And has inspired me to be much more active on my sewing machine in 2010!
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