Boil In The Bag Christmas

Christmas Day. The day you spend at home with family because everywhere else is shut, apart from the places you could have booked had you done so in February. Only kidding...

Except of course last year we did sort of buck the trend, didn’t cook anything, and went for a long longed for curry on Christmas Day. We had hoped that we’d cooked our last and were hoping for more of the same this year. Then out of the blue, Son tells us that he’s coming over for Christmas along with his fiancée. This is such a rarity and akin to a visit from royalty so clearly it has to be embraced and the red carpet rolled out.

 

Daughter will also be joining us and my parents too, although with my Mum not being very mobile the long held tradition of going down the pub on Christmas Day is shelved. It will be the first time in 33 years that I haven’t been but I’m not as gutted as my father who will have had an even longer run either with my brother or myself.

Of course, L and I could still go but she is giving me that ‘I’m never going to drink again after last night’ look and we also have Son to pick up from his hotel. He’s splashed out after strategically using the vouchers we bought him last Christmas.

Before all that it’s the Christmas Day parkrun at Forest Rec where a staggering 738 runners turn up which is a new record for the East Midlands. I run with the Lad, Daughter runs with MD and L runs with herself.

We had already exchange presents with me adding a tennis bag (for the budding tennis pro) and a laptop (to replace her antique ipad that’s annoying us both) to the two presents she’s already bought herself. There’s also my ongoing offer to fund a personal trainer.

She reciprocates with a new watch (a much longed for Swatch), new trainers for my marathon and pedals for my commuter bike. I always like to add some random bike part to my Christmas List but I do really need new pedals.

Most of my other presents are either alcoholic or chocolate, as they should be.

To almost get out of cooking we have ordered out but not quite through Just Eat. A company called ‘Cook’ delivered to us last week what one of my friends has described as a boil in the bag Christmas.

It’s not quite that easy and requires quite an intricate cooker relay stratagem but the food is ultimately very good. We have a mix of meat and non-meat dishes - Salmon Terrine, Crown of Turkey, Honey Roast Ham Joint, Mushroom Wellington, French Onion Tart and lots of vegetables. Some from Cook, some of our own. It all goes down very well.

My expensive chocolate filled crackers from Hotel Chocolat are less successful (although this just leaves more chocolate for me) but it’s hard to know what kind of crackers would be. Crackers are one of many strange Christmas anomalies that I don’t understand what they are for or where they came from.

Then its another old Christmas tradition, the crash in front of the TV and fall asleep thing. With both kids there it’s just like the old days especially with Son glued to an electronic device. I assume he’s playing a computer game but L assures me he’s being sociable and actually ready an e-book. Ah, ok...

(Tuesday 25^th December)