Sniff, sniff Christmas...
Well, Christmas came and Christmas went... and I had the most awful cold that snuck up on me like a bat out of hell. All I can really say about this was that right up to Xmas eve I felt fine, then I had this wee bit of a sore throat, and then I woke up on Christmas morning to find that I was streaming. And it's not gone yet, well and truly Xmas past.
But.. colds be damned, there was cooking to do. Needless to say, I'd left all of my planning and timetables for cooking back home, so it was out of the window with that, and get on with the practicalities. After all, if you've cooked large family meals and many other Christmas dinners, there's not a lot really that you don't already know about putting another one together. Turkey goes in the oven, vegetables get cooked - but the real planning part of it, i.e., when to put the pudding on to cook so it's ready for the time when you've eaten your first course, isn't so important these days, when puddings cook perfectly well in the microwave. Long gone are the days of the two hour boil. This was only a meal for four people - Mum, Martin, Nick and me, so it was perfectly within the realms of an off the cuff meal production. People make a big deal over xmas lunches, but to be honest, ask yourself - what's so different about this that any other Sunday lunch doesn't throw up? It's a doddle. A walk in the park. I par boiled the turkey - a crown, not the full fledged bird. Not for four people, frankly that's just too much turkey. Boiled it for 45 minutes, then roasted it with a maple syrup and butter baste. The idea behind this is to keep the meat moist, but I can't say I noticed much difference between this method and any other.
So we also had the de riguer glass of bubbly, and opened the presents - these seemed to go down well. And I got what I'd asked for, which is also nice. The dogs did too - this is their Christmas dinner!
Sweet huh? They do like their Xmas turky, veg and gravy! The cats had some too. We have a pack of animals over at my mother's home, these are my sister's dogs, Tilly and Doris. The cats were originally hers too, but chose to remain with Mother rather than move next door when my sister moved! So Jacob and Pogle live with her. 
This is Pogle looking most demonic with the flash not quite obliterating his eyes, but almost! This is a cat who brings in poor little killed birdies, and as a consequence has to wear two bells on his collar to try and prevent this, and give the poor little birdies a fighting chance of escaping. He also, most extraordinarily, brings in grasses and so on to decorate the corpses with. We think he's making his contribution to the family larder, and honoring the leaders of his pack, (pack? Cats? Whatever.), but nevertheless, he likes to arrange the bodies in a decorative fashion. Like most of the family, he clearly has some sort of artistic sense. He's also capable of being a dumb cat, who gets under your feet and won't keep out of the way, leading to all sorts of accidents, like I trod on his tail last week, and he yells, I jump in all directions to try and avoid him, but does he move? No chance. He expects you to dance the polka to avoid him.
So that was Xmas. I'm working new year, so I don't expect I'll blog again until 2007. Wow. Another year. I wonder what this one will bring...
