Christmas update

Well Christmas dinner went superbly well!There were some minor difficulties en-route; As I walked down Manchester Rd to Christchurch to help out with the children's service Natalie took Hannah to the GP. In the surgery her ear drum burst! So much pain - she cried many nights before and last night was the first silent night since! The children's service went ok it seems - I certainly enjoyed myself, nice to work with Tom Pyke. Then Christmas eve, Lisa started throwing up! Twice in the night. By morning we were tired and I still had a turkey to roast. I woke up late - not the 7:30 begin I had hoped for and got the turkey in the oven at 8:45, didn't exactly follow Jamie or Gordon's recipes but did listen to them and stuffed the turkey breasts with butter and cranberries and the bird with a tangerine. We moved the venue from our place to Marlene's as we were worried that maybe Lisa would be infectious and our house as well - however Lisa cheered up and by 11 was fine and eating again. The meal was bring and share and Simon and Heather provided the vegetables - and they were the highlight for me - goose fat roasted potatoes and red cabbage cooked in balsamic! Lisa and Jude had a great time playing games with Ashish who had found some little plastic hopping bug toy in his cracker, Aimé joined us all about an hour later. We ate wonderfully and had left-overs to share.
Then boxing day we went to visit my Dad and his family in Surrey and the girls got suitably spoiled with gifts - we ate a tasty left-over turkey and gammon meal and finished it off with trifle, yule log, mince pies etc...