Okay, this isn't the post you are waiting for, but I had such a lovely Christmas Eve that I had to share these pictures first.
When I was growing up, we opened presents on Christmas Eve as the Germans/Scandinavians do. Present opening was always done sitting by the Christmas tree, and was preceded by a yummy meal of finger-food. There was no pickled herring this year, but we did splurge on some smoked salmon at the grocery store.
First step: put up the Christmas tree.
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| Splot, the boat mascot, who found the Father Christmas key chain and the Christmas tree deep in a cupboard in the boat. |
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| Let the assembly begin. (I love lego!) Discovered early on that a bowl was necessary to hold all the little tiny bits, keeping the boat from swallowing any should I (gasp) drop one. |
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| Progress - followed the directions of course. |
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| Lego Christmas success - note it even has presents under the tree! |
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| Our Christmas Eve family - check out Splot's party hat. If this picture was scratch and sniff, you'd smell Balsam Pine - no, not from the tree silly, it's from the candle! |
Second Step: assemble the feast.
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| The delicacies included avocado, brie with sorrel chutney, tomatoes with olive oil and fresh basil, liver pate, and smoked salmon with a sprinkle of lime juice. Not bad, eh? |
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| Oh, it WAS fun. Dessert was cookies (ginger snap and peanut butter, made by yours truly), lots of chocolate and custard (don't ask, it's a British thing). |
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| Post Christmas bliss |
We did open presents, and we had stockings in the morning like the Brits do. Along with some cool jewelery and more chocolate, my stocking had a Gin and Tonic - yeah!
There were more presents and food on Christmas Day, with brunch with friends from the Yacht Club and then Christmas dinner with more friends. We went to bed fat and happy -
- which was very good, because the next two days were spent working hard to get ready for our trip to Cuba, details to come...
