Christmas Day schedule:
1) Wake up and see what Santa has left in his big smelly sock. Gretchen got into the swing of this ripping the paper from her presents (ok yes we bought the dog a couple of gifts!)
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 | Gretchen wearing her new flashing collar so know all the cars can see us as we walk down the street – it is very cool! |
2) Skype the UK to see the family who were all about to sit down for lunch having already popped the bubbly …..
3) Get 20lbs turkey in the oven – just! It is a good thing we have two ovens since the turkey occupied the whole of the top oven
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4) Open presents under the tree and admire Amazon’s bizarre present wrapping paper
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5) Welcome Robert & Denise and Karen, Dave & baby Nathan for lunch
6) Crack open the Prosecco and tuck into a selection of Polish sausage and duck pate as a pre lunch snack (to be honest it could have been a meal since Robert bought out the whole Polish deli for us!)
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7) Eat lunch and then hold our overly stuffed bellies. We hardly made a dent on the turkey so decided to have a break before dessert – enough time to dress up the dog in paper hats and Santa hats – poor Gretchen!
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8) Christmas Pudding, walnut pie and custard (just in case you are still hungry), and accompanied by homemade liquors. Stuart and Robert discovered you can get a much more impressive flame on the Christmas pudding if you mix the brandy with Everclear - even the pan went on fire!
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9) Welcome afternoon/evening guests and keep the party going. Robert starts up the mulled wine on the fondue and pours (more) Everclear and Rum mixture over a sugar cone to caramelise and melt into the wine pot. It took a wee while with almost a fire incident (Stuart was duty fireman with the wok, a well know fire prevention tool!), but very tasty in the end and the house is still standing!
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10) A good time had by all. Time for bed so we can play with all our presents on Boxing Day!
