Wednesday 25th December 2024

Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas.

As there is just Jools and myself, and four cats, we laid in bed until half seven, it was getting light, but looking out there was mist/fog lingering, diffusing the light.

There would be no snow this Christmas.

Not much to do other than make coffee, feed the cats, fill the feeders and have breakfast, not much on the radio to listen to, but the morning slipped by.

We had to be round Jen's early, as she needed a big tin for roasting the turkey be got, so we left home laden with tray and wine at half ten, arrived in time for the bird to go into the oven at twenty past eleven.

Potatoes were peeled, vegetables chopped, and all the other tasks needed to make Christmas Christmassy. Jen had laid the table the night before, the tree was lit, and underneath loads of presents spread deep and crisp and even.

Jools went to collect two family friends, Tony and Shirley from their sheltered housing in Dover, and the task then was to keep them hydrated with their glasses of Baileys being topped up.

As the morning turned into the afternoon, more things were needed to be cooked, and once Mike, George and Trinny arrived, Trinny helped Jen and I in the kitchen.

Potatoes boiled, then dried out before being placed in a baking tray and doused with hot oil and put into the oven.

Pigs in blankets and stuffing balls were placed in the other oven, before the vegetables were set to steam.

And it was the vegetables that took the most time as we waited.

In the end, dinner was an hour late, but Jen has a hostess trolley to keep everything warm, so come three, I carved the well-rested meat, plates were filled and finally we sat down with a freshly filled wine glass and toasted each other.

For desert there was trifle or tiramisu. I had neither, but the others filled up further. The cooks rested whilst the others washed up and put tins, plates, pots and pans away.

All done for another year.

Come five, Jools took Tony and Shirley back, then came to pour me into the car and we went home, all ready and with a fresh brew and some dunking shortbread for when Wallace and Gromit came on at ten past six.

Nick Park has maintained standards, and this new feature length episode was full of details, and will need to be watched again and again to take it all in.

Cold sausages and rum for supper. So come nine I was pooped.

Boxing Day, we will do it all again at our place.