Happy Christmas! Ours got off to a good start yesterday. Most of the day was spent cooking. I made little mince tarts in mini muffin trays. Then I made a pavlova. I had the egg whites in the freezer to use up but the cake was not a success - it burnt on the bottom because my oven is too hot and too small. It either cooks too quickly top or bottom. I performed surgery on it and removed the bottom and we had the good bits in big pieces, topped with cream and strawberries, kiwifruit and banana and it tasted OK.
About 8.30 D and I went up to Franklin Rd to look at the lights. Most of the houses there are all lit up and it is a lovely atmosphere. By the time we got back it was present opening time. A grand affair this year in the sitting room with the Christmas tree lit up and the soft lamplight. Always a bit moving and melancholy. Hope there are many more of them, I thought.
D gave me the usual diary which I love (Nancy Tichbourne flower paintings, and other things I knew about but forgotten he had bought, E showered us with gifts - me, a book, a large cake of grapefruit and fig bath soap, a new special water bottle for the gym, a red leather label for my suitcase. I gave her a chocolate fondue set I had bought in Smith and Caugheys sale and wished I hadnt. Thankfully she was thrilled with it, also a beach towell which she also liked, a diary, and other bits and pieces, all chosen to please which they did.
E had her poloroid camera there and took some vintage style little square photos, D took a couple of ordidnary ones. I didnt have my finery on, so didn't want more.
It is now 9am and time for a nice breakfast of the things we like - in my case, musli and toast with my homemade strawberry jam, and a cup of fresh milky coffee. We will have our meal of the day - ham, salad and potato salad, when Pamela and Markus, and Eli, as her friends call her, come round.
So here's wishing you a very happy day with you and yours too.
