I was out of bed on Christmas morning before everyone. My earliest morning in the past week (I'm writing this on the morning of Saturday, December 28, and I was out of bed a few minutes after 10 - can you believe that???!!!), and I took advantage by throwing on some walking gear and getting outside for a stroll.
So nice and peaceful on Christmas morning. Barely anyone around. I admired the neighbourhood decorations,
messaged with friends, and enjoyed the tranquility.
And then I came back to pick up Marie to take Olive out for a short walk. Look at her!
What a beautiful girl.
Van and Conrad got themselves going eventually, and the four of us had an easy breakfast. Van opened a couple of presents that were under his tree,
Marie and I finished off the dishes from the night before, then we headed back to the condo to shower and change
and get ready for dinner.
In practice, that also meant a nap for Conrad and a holiday romcom for me and Marie, but you get the idea.
Van and Olive came over about mid-afternoon, and once I had the macaroni and cheese in the oven and cocktails made for them, we opened stockings.
Stockings are a big deal in our home, as you can tell, and that took a lot of time. The others had wanted us to open presents as well before Natasha arrived, but by the time stockings were done, I needed everyone to get to work on making sure we were set up for dinner. We did presents with Natasha after dinner, and that worked out quite fine.
Dinner was alright.
We got a ham on the bone from Honey Baked Ham, but it didn't heat up as well as I wanted.
Ah well. The sides were fine - the macaroni and cheese turned out to be a decent recipe that used a custard instead of a roux.
I was pleased with the biscuits, too.
I also made a parsnip soup
at the last minute so that we had a reason to serve some caviar to Natasha (as a garnish). It's likely our last big holiday meal with her because she is moving in February, and I wanted it special. We had stopped at Bristol Farms earlier in the day to buy the caviar, and we found crackers as well. Hanukkah crackers, which we thought would be fine.
Never those particular ones again, though - no paper crowns inside, and when we pulled them open, they shot out large confetti pieces that littered the table and floor and got into the soup and drinks.
Conrad and I served up a nice Italian wine we'd picked up at Eataly through the dinner, but we poured Champagne for everyone first. Out came the bûche de Noël,
and that was thoroughly enjoyed. The evening would down with Conrad and Van taking on dishes duty,
and then, after Van and Olive left, I slipped into a holiday onesie
and the three of us watched another holiday romcom.
It was a flurry of work right before dinner, but all in all, the day was a fine one.
I hope you all had a very happy Christmas!
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