Christmas Eve
Oh I have had fun the past couple of days. Through the stinking hot on Friday, I went caroling at de_chel's house, although I got confused because they arrangements were different to what I'm used to. Then I tried that beautiful egg nog for the first time. Then we headed off to nclean's gig. Good gig, nice pub, would have been nicer if there were air conditioning or it wasn't 45 degrees in there. Luckily I am a geek and carry a fan with me.
We had fun afterwards when it started raining and we were standing outside getting wet. Yay rain
Yesterday I went to lunch at Granny's. I'd received some hints from my psych about how to deal with psycho mother of doom, and they actually worked. I'm so impressed. I've learnt how to manage my mother. At least enough for Christmas.
Some people have been posting about christmas traditions, so I thought I'd do the same
Granny usually has all that side of the family over for a huge lunch for about 20-25 people. We will start by getting a lot of champagne into us. As the nibblies usually involve seafood, and I don't want to fill up too much before lunch, I will drink lots of champagne on an empty stomach and it will go straight to my head. The youngest cousin Angus will then eagerly insist that we open presents. He didn't do that this year. We had to coax him to get excited about presents.
Then we will sit down and everyone gets served dinner. The combination of being lots of us to serve, lots of bottles of red being poured during this time, and a family thing of not eating until everyone is served means I get more alchohol on an empty stomach. Granny used to do the turkey, but in the past few years she's moved away from that, and is moving to a more buffet style, although it still features roast type stuff.
Aunty Margaret used to at some point quiz any new partners to the family. And she will sit down and quiz them with really boring questions for quite a while. (It's sort of a partner initation. We know we should rescue them, but it's so funny to watch). However since she had a stroke and can't talk anymore, my cousin's new girlfriend doesn't know how lucky she is.
At some point Handel's Halleluia will come on. Those who actually know the SATB parts will sing properly. Those who don't will sing the sop part falsetto. It's kinda like the MonUCS sop aria.
Then the soaking everyone in brandy will come out. Granny always makes a big pudding a couple of months in advance and leaves it hanging in cheesecloth. Bless her heart she also makes me a butter based boiled pudding. I don't think she puts change in it anymore though. She does a fantastic job of decorating it with holly from the garden and setting it alight. Mum even set my pudding alight too, although she almost scorched me in the process. Then there is the hard sauce. We put a lot of brandy in ours. I've gotten the family recipe now (yay) and it essentially calls for brandy until it begins to curdle. If not enough hard sauce is made, then there will be wars. If there's enough, then people will continue eating it after the pudding is finished, by the spoonful. My aunt yesterday accused my sisters of being very critical of the hard sauce. I'm not sure why she got that impression. If there's enough I'm happy. There will also be lots of yummy dessert wine. lorac, when I was surprised at your family's lack of heavy drinking at your christmas, this is why
Di usually makes her fruitcake with royal icing, and I make my shortbread of much artery clogging. Di didn't make her fruitcake this year. Goodness, I remember about 5 years ago Di and I were living with Mum and we had lots of family at our place, and Mum 'accidentally' made too much hard sauce, and Di made too much cake. For the next 2 weeks all our snacks involved fruitcake and hard sauce.
If it's Boxing Day, we will retreat to the lounge and watch the cricket. If we're energetic, we will head to the park and play cricket in our heels and all. Yesterday we were neither.
At some point I like to read the christmas books Mum keeps around the tree. My favourite is Morris' Disappearing Bag. Not sure why I like it, but it's so cute. Maybe it's that sweet beaming grin Morris has in the illustrations. I'll read it out aloud to myself and put on the voices. It's an adorable book about a boy/rabbit who's siblings get really cool presents, and share them with each other, but not Morris (he was too silly for the beauty kit said Rose he might eat the lipstick... No one wanted Morris' bear!... Lets take your bear for a walk said Morris' Dad. No! said Morris). Morris sulks, but then finds a disappearing bag. He plays hide and seek on his siblings. Siblings think this is a cool present. Morris temporarily disposes of siblings in said bag, while he goes and uses their presents, including horrible 80s makeup. (Morris, I hope you remember where you put the bag said Victor)
One thing I haven't been able to do this year is watch the King's Carols on TV because I couldn't find when they were playing. At some point I will have to watch my christmas dvds too.
My sisters and I also partake in carol singing of awfulness, although we can actually sing. We have a tendency to sing whatever part comes handy, which rarely includes the actual tune, and we can't bother with staying in tune.
After lunch Mum drove me to dzurlady's house. The idea was to go caroling but we had 3 altos and a bass, and no one to sing sop. We scratched that idea and went straight to dinner. I was intenting to go home after dinner, but lots of people I knew were at the same place for dinner, ready to sing at Midnight Mass were MUCS does it every year. So I decided to stay for Midnight Mass for the first time. Hell, I'd sobered up after lunch, and I was conveniently wearing something close enough to all black. We got to sit in the choir pews, and there were lit candles around us, and we had those high music stands so it was very picture perfect. Lots of lovely incense. Don't do that in a uniting church (yes, you've found me out, I went pagan because the rituals smell nicer). Uniting church is a lot more efficient with the communion though. None of this 500 strong church lining up to drink from one cup. All pre sorted into little glasses to hand out. Much more sensible. Probably a bitch to wash up after though.
I'd heard much of the chocolate dipped strawberries, and I was impressed that there were white chocolate dipped strawberries too. Yay. However, it was 1 by this point, I was falling asleep as per usual, and the glass of wine I had brought out all the brandy soaking in me again and my legs forgot how to hold my body. Urgh.
Went home to sleep
Woke up this morning and mikeymuggle and I exchanged presents before he head off to family lunch. I've got a sudoku book to keep me occupied during btondamf. Yay!
We had fun afterwards when it started raining and we were standing outside getting wet. Yay rain
Yesterday I went to lunch at Granny's. I'd received some hints from my psych about how to deal with psycho mother of doom, and they actually worked. I'm so impressed. I've learnt how to manage my mother. At least enough for Christmas.
Some people have been posting about christmas traditions, so I thought I'd do the same
Granny usually has all that side of the family over for a huge lunch for about 20-25 people. We will start by getting a lot of champagne into us. As the nibblies usually involve seafood, and I don't want to fill up too much before lunch, I will drink lots of champagne on an empty stomach and it will go straight to my head. The youngest cousin Angus will then eagerly insist that we open presents. He didn't do that this year. We had to coax him to get excited about presents.
Then we will sit down and everyone gets served dinner. The combination of being lots of us to serve, lots of bottles of red being poured during this time, and a family thing of not eating until everyone is served means I get more alchohol on an empty stomach. Granny used to do the turkey, but in the past few years she's moved away from that, and is moving to a more buffet style, although it still features roast type stuff.
Aunty Margaret used to at some point quiz any new partners to the family. And she will sit down and quiz them with really boring questions for quite a while. (It's sort of a partner initation. We know we should rescue them, but it's so funny to watch). However since she had a stroke and can't talk anymore, my cousin's new girlfriend doesn't know how lucky she is.
At some point Handel's Halleluia will come on. Those who actually know the SATB parts will sing properly. Those who don't will sing the sop part falsetto. It's kinda like the MonUCS sop aria.
Then the soaking everyone in brandy will come out. Granny always makes a big pudding a couple of months in advance and leaves it hanging in cheesecloth. Bless her heart she also makes me a butter based boiled pudding. I don't think she puts change in it anymore though. She does a fantastic job of decorating it with holly from the garden and setting it alight. Mum even set my pudding alight too, although she almost scorched me in the process. Then there is the hard sauce. We put a lot of brandy in ours. I've gotten the family recipe now (yay) and it essentially calls for brandy until it begins to curdle. If not enough hard sauce is made, then there will be wars. If there's enough, then people will continue eating it after the pudding is finished, by the spoonful. My aunt yesterday accused my sisters of being very critical of the hard sauce. I'm not sure why she got that impression. If there's enough I'm happy. There will also be lots of yummy dessert wine. lorac, when I was surprised at your family's lack of heavy drinking at your christmas, this is why
Di usually makes her fruitcake with royal icing, and I make my shortbread of much artery clogging. Di didn't make her fruitcake this year. Goodness, I remember about 5 years ago Di and I were living with Mum and we had lots of family at our place, and Mum 'accidentally' made too much hard sauce, and Di made too much cake. For the next 2 weeks all our snacks involved fruitcake and hard sauce.
If it's Boxing Day, we will retreat to the lounge and watch the cricket. If we're energetic, we will head to the park and play cricket in our heels and all. Yesterday we were neither.
At some point I like to read the christmas books Mum keeps around the tree. My favourite is Morris' Disappearing Bag. Not sure why I like it, but it's so cute. Maybe it's that sweet beaming grin Morris has in the illustrations. I'll read it out aloud to myself and put on the voices. It's an adorable book about a boy/rabbit who's siblings get really cool presents, and share them with each other, but not Morris (he was too silly for the beauty kit said Rose he might eat the lipstick... No one wanted Morris' bear!... Lets take your bear for a walk said Morris' Dad. No! said Morris). Morris sulks, but then finds a disappearing bag. He plays hide and seek on his siblings. Siblings think this is a cool present. Morris temporarily disposes of siblings in said bag, while he goes and uses their presents, including horrible 80s makeup. (Morris, I hope you remember where you put the bag said Victor)
One thing I haven't been able to do this year is watch the King's Carols on TV because I couldn't find when they were playing. At some point I will have to watch my christmas dvds too.
My sisters and I also partake in carol singing of awfulness, although we can actually sing. We have a tendency to sing whatever part comes handy, which rarely includes the actual tune, and we can't bother with staying in tune.
After lunch Mum drove me to dzurlady's house. The idea was to go caroling but we had 3 altos and a bass, and no one to sing sop. We scratched that idea and went straight to dinner. I was intenting to go home after dinner, but lots of people I knew were at the same place for dinner, ready to sing at Midnight Mass were MUCS does it every year. So I decided to stay for Midnight Mass for the first time. Hell, I'd sobered up after lunch, and I was conveniently wearing something close enough to all black. We got to sit in the choir pews, and there were lit candles around us, and we had those high music stands so it was very picture perfect. Lots of lovely incense. Don't do that in a uniting church (yes, you've found me out, I went pagan because the rituals smell nicer). Uniting church is a lot more efficient with the communion though. None of this 500 strong church lining up to drink from one cup. All pre sorted into little glasses to hand out. Much more sensible. Probably a bitch to wash up after though.
I'd heard much of the chocolate dipped strawberries, and I was impressed that there were white chocolate dipped strawberries too. Yay. However, it was 1 by this point, I was falling asleep as per usual, and the glass of wine I had brought out all the brandy soaking in me again and my legs forgot how to hold my body. Urgh.
Went home to sleep
Woke up this morning and mikeymuggle and I exchanged presents before he head off to family lunch. I've got a sudoku book to keep me occupied during btondamf. Yay!