CHRISTMAS DAY

    Christmas day dawned sunny and bright (just after 5 a.m.). We made some phone calls, I answered some emails and made several smoothies to take with us.  We had just over a 30 minute drive to the new home of Doug's two grandsons.

We arrived just as the others did.  Doug's daughter and ex-husband were there (he always joins in family festivities) his Granddaughter who is expecting her first child in May, his 2 Grandsons, the partner of the eldest and Great-granddaughter.  

Since they moved to this house Doug's youngest grandson has taken up baking and they all started with fried bread (a New Zealand speciality with the raw dough being fried, some delicious pastries filled with spinach and cheese, he had also made some milk bread which he said started with making a roux and he had made and iced a very nice triple layer chocolate cake.  There were also the usual nibbles of camembert, grapes, crackers and a host of other things.

We sat and chatted nibbling on these and then it was time for a lunch of ham, lamb and chicken with roast potatoes, salads, asparagus  and multicolour baby carrots.

We then opened the presents before sharing various deserts, pavlova, trifle and fruit salad and I had a gluten free trifle which I made in a Bonne Maman jar which was a perfect size for a single serve.  

Once home, we put our feet up for a while before watering the garden and then watching The Chase, The News, The Queen and Repair Shed before opening our other presents at 9 p.m.

The temperature reached 29°C so we did not go to the beach but stayed indoors with the aircon going.  A thoroughly enjoyable day.