Christmas

Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve, evening when the Bickerstaffs came round for a door step chat.  They came with a wagon draped in lights.  On it were a camping stove and a pan of mulled wine and a speaker playing Christmas music.  So, they had their mulled wine and we had ours, we kept 2 metres apart and we had a lot of Christmas cheer.  A great start to Christmas!

The Bickerstaffs and their mulled wine waggon.  The start of Christmas.

Christmas day dawned bright and frosty.  We had told Tom he could come in our room at 8.30 but he came in at 8.00, saying..."I'm not coming in - but you have to look outside"  he drew back the curtains to the most amazing sunrise.  We were glad he had woken us up as it only lasted about 5 minutes.   

He then came to our bedroom with his stocking - for the first time ever he had unpacked it by himself.  However, he hadn't opened the present from Santa - he felt he needed our permission for that.  It was a hornbill soft toy, just as he had asked.  He seemed happy with the contents.

We went downstairs for our breakfast - smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and homemade bread as usual and very lovey too - the only day of the year we have it which makes it extra special.

Before

After

As it was such a lovely day and we didn't have any guests or visitors, we decided to go for a walk after breakfast - to enjoy the blue skies and crispy frost, so got dressed in our outdoor clothes and headed out.  There were quite a few dog walkers around - everyone stopped for a chat.  Bumped into the Holmans who were shocked that Tom hadn't got to open his presents yet!  Poor boy!!!!

We got back, had showers, then prepped all the food.  3 rib of beef as usual, even though there were only the 3 of us - once again we only have this on Christmas day and the usual timings were perfect, For reference:

220 DEGREES FOR 25 MINS

140 DEGREES FOR 1.5 HRS

TAKE OUT OF THE OVEN 45 MINUTES BEFORE EATING

We had red cabbage which Tom and I made two days ago, roasties, parsnips, carrots, kale, yorkies and gravy.  Tom made the yorkies of course - I don't go near them these days, other than to pour them into the tin.  

We then made our way into the lounge for present opening.  Seemed we had as many presents as usual this year even though we didn't have any visitors!  We all did well, but the boy did extremely well and was a happy boy: posh snooker cues, cook books, chefs hats, a drone, a lap top, loads of clothes, his favourite African music (I don't know why, but Tom LOVES African music - especially Tuareg Rock which comes from the Sahel)

 Matt and I did well too - thank you to everyone who sent us gifts.

Yorkies!

We then were back in the kitchen finishing off Christmas dinner ready for 2pm.  It was good, the Yorkies of course were magnificent as usual, the beef good and the best item I thought were the parsnips which were out of this world - we got them from Cornvale - they were the best parsnips I have ever eaten - need to get some more from them.

The afternoon was spent zooming with family.  First up was the Branches at 3pm where everything went smoothly, think we lasted about an hour - when Mum and Dad had to leave to get their 2kg of venison sorted.  We then had a zoom booked with Jude, Craig and Bob and Pat, but for some reason it didn't work first time and then when Matt sent out another reference Bob was unable to receive it, meaning that they didn't make it on.  Oh well, I'm guessing something had to go wrong at some stage!  Everyone seemed happy enough, was nice to actually see Mum and Dad - haven't seen them in over a year!

We then had Christmas pudding and lounged on the sofa watching telly and went to bed with groaning tummies!

Sorry didn't take many photos except of dinner!

Ingleton on Christmas Day

Oh - as Tom was getting ready for bed on Christmas Day evening, he asked Matt why he came into his bedroom last night with a torch?!!!!!!  Matt said he was checking on the mammoths (they were all lined up and had a notice on them saying 'Receiving Mammoths').  This sort of logic does work in our household - we don't feel that the mammoths can be trusted with such an important job, so we were checking on them.  However, we are wondering if that was his way of telling us that he knows it is us?!  Oh hum, we will see what happens next year?  He didn't say anything after that - but he isn't the kind of child to nag or push things, and anyway why jeopardise getting your stocking every year?!