and so this is christmas

Woz, Nate and I spent Christmas in Putney this year, staying with friends from Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day.

On Christmas Eve we were invited to drinks at Linda and Sanjay's house where we devoured mince pies, mulled wine and ....... curry! (Sanjay is Indian and over the years his very English wife Linda has mastered the art of traditional Indian cooking passed on by her mother-in-law). Nate absolutely loved the party as most of the people there had kids and brought them along. The adults gathered in the kitchen where we chatted over traditional Christmas music with lashings of Bollywood, and the kids ran riot in the rest of the house. We had a great night!

After the party we travelled home with Bec and Andrew (Dobs) who we were staying with for Christmas. With Nate being the only child in the house and being totally unaware of the excitement of the day, we all slept in until quite late, had a leisurely breakfast, exchanged presents and then got to work preparing a traditional Christmas dinner, led by Dobs.

It was mouthwatering. A huge turkey, covered with rashers of bacon, baked with pigs in a blanket (sausages wrapped in bacon) and stuffing balls (it's not as common to stuff the bird with stuffing here as it is to simply serve balls of stuffing, cooked in the roasting pan with the meat). We had parsnips roasted in honey, carrots soaked in ginger beer, brussel sprouts served with red onion and chestnuts, Yorkshire puddings and potatoes roasted in semolina and goose fat. To top it off was a gravy made from scratch with ham, vegetables and cloves of all sorts of things!

Dobs did an incredible job cooking the elaborate feast for eight, co-ordinating the timing of each dish and cooking each one to perfection - hard to believe it was his first attempt.