1. Decide what to eat. Tick.
Fairly easy for us. Favourites abound in our house and we tend not to use holiday for trying out new receipts.
Individual beef welling, fillet steak wrapped in pate and puff pastry, baby potatoes, mixed vegetables.
2. Decide who to invite. Tick.
Another easy one, no one. Two reasons for this, one being the virus restrictions. Second being we don’t have close friends that we would choose to spend Christmas lunch with. We did that one year when we went to a restaurant in Latchi with some new comers to Cyprus. Our daughter was here recovering from a broken heart and their son was visiting. It was a pretty good day but relationship broke down a little while after so the ‘never again’ came into play!
3. What would we like for presents?
This is usually something for the house, an extravagance we take as a treat for us.
This year was slightly different. Mr D’s electric wet and dry razor packed up. It was a long, slow death with the razor hanging on to the last gasp and then after three or four days jumped back into action on its own in the bathroom. By that time a new replacement had been ordered and a proper barber found in Polis with recommendation from several gentlemen in the area.
The supplier then said they could not dispatch the Cyprus.. God alone knows why. So to ease the carriage of much needed razor the help of a friend in England was enlisted and he tried to send it via Royal Mail. The man at Royal Mail he say non. Let’s try TNT thought our friend. Ahh, looking good. Accepted and on its way. Not so. Address not recognised. I feel like cutting my throat.
Thank god for the barber in Polis.
Eventually it did arrive at the local bakery and all’s well with the clean shave.
4. And for me...
Well, I had recently taken delivery of a mini food processor. Oh, what a delight. The one I had was years old and the blades were not in a good shape.
So, I decided to go for something a bit girly from Marks and at the same time get some slippers for us both.
You may think boring, but these tiles are cold, cold, cold and I particularly wanted something to go with my new pink fluffy pjs. Ok?
By the way our Marks order took a whole six or seven days whereas the new razor took about three weeks!
5. Book call with daughter. Tick.
Sounds a bit weird but she is a support worker so I never know when she will be free. But hooray, this year she has Christmas dat off!
6. Make soup. Tick.
Mmmm, celery and tomato. Last year I got a soup maker. I never knew there was such a thing but heard someone talking about it and as we always make lots of soup in the winter it was a ‘must have’ thing.
I got a recipe book from the internet aptly called ‘100 soup maker recipes’ by Liana Green. I have the Delia one but this is the business.
One thing I find really useful are the two indices, one in page order and the other alphabetical by ingredients. This is where the green marker pen comes in handy.
7. Trifle. Tick.
We have been doing a fair amount of comfort food recently and Mr D said oooohhh trifle (and 100s and 1,000s on top).
I must admit to getting shop bought Swiss roll and ready made custard but it is the thought that counts, surely.
8. Chicken liver pâté. Tick.
To be used on the beef Wellington. I made a pate recently but wanted fresh, so all in hand to make tomorrow, with help from the new processor.
9. Get Christmas Day steak from butcher. Tick.
The butcher in Polis has supplied us with fillet steak and we have been very pleased so chose them again.
10. Collect gammon joint from local butcher. Tick for tomorrow.
We have decided to have a go at an amazing recipe featured by Jamie’s Oliver on his channel for out post-Christmas meat. Looking forward to getting the juices flowing on that one.
11. Clean the house and sort a few decorations. Tick.
Ever since March we have not had help around the house so things have ticked over between the two of us. It can be a bit hit and miss but it works.
Decorations put together from a manic box which lives in what is equivalent to a Cyprus loft.
12. Sit back, relax, and be thankful for all the positive things in life. Tick.
We sometimes get bogged down by things going on but we should never loose sight of the important things.
Live, love, laugh, and be happy with your lot.
Happy Christmas to every one and see you next year. xxxxxx
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