Christmas Day 2023: food and presents

Today is Boxing Day.  I am too tired for more socialising and sales.  It is just a lazy day on the couch with the lights shining on the Christmas tree.  So I am taking the time to share some photos of Christmas Day.  To start with, here is our breakfast.  (The gingerbread house is for show, not part of our meal.)

Breakfast for E and me is pretty much what we always have had.  I baked overnight sourdough cranberry nut rolls to eat with swiss cheese and cranberry sauce.  To drink I squeezed some orange juice and added soda water.  Sylvia went off piste and toasted some Eggo waffles that she topped with ice cream, chocolate fudge sauce and festive sprinkles.

I then drive to my parents place.  When I left Melbourne it was pouring rain but as I got to Geelong the rain dried up and I could turn off my windscreen wipers and demisters.  The presents were under the tree and I wasn't the last one there.

Once my sister arrived with the platters, we started nibbles and my dad gave out the presents.  My nieces went home for jumpers but I took mine off as it wasn't as cold as it had been at home.  My sister Susie's dog, Banjo looks very cute outside the window in his Christmas jacket in the above photo.

This platter put together by my sister Fran was spectacular.  It was a great mix of popcorn, cherries, berries and maltesers as well as french onion dip, camembert and quince paste to serve on crackers.  She also had hummus, rice crackers and goats cheese on another plate.

Then it was time to set the table with candles, baubles, salt and pepper, serviettes, crackers and cutlery.  My brother Andy's British house guests came over for Christmas lunch a long way from home.  I think my family was disappointed we could not give them a warm Christmas day but at least my mum could serve a hot roast dinner with pudding and desserts.  (Others in the family bring contributions to the dinner.  As usual, I bought some nut roast.)

Here is my Christmas dinner: nut roast, roast potato, roast pumpkin, cauliflower cheese, peas and chutney.  It was delicious.  Sylvia had her lunch with her dad at my place but my mum put together a leftover roast dinner to take home to them.

When I was young we just had plum pudding with custard for Christmas.  Now we have a tyranny of choice when it comes to desserts.  I passed on the pavlova because I do not find it as exciting as others.  Besides there are many sweets on offer that I would prefer to eat: toblerone cheesecake, caramel tart, chocolate ripple cake and, of course, plum pudding with custard.

Sylvia made these cute Pesto Christmas trees using puff pastry.  She found a video by shewillevolve on Tik Tok.  Sylvia got quite good at folding them into tree shapes.  And they tasted great.  She made so many that we had some on Christmas eve, some yesterday, some today and still have them in the freezer.  Next year I we want to try them with Vegemite instead of pesto!

This photo is of Christmas leftovers.  It is one of the best things about a big Christmas feast.  The nut roast is my leftover that I brought home from lunch.  My brother and sister who love nut roasts were not there so I had even more left than usual.  My mum sent us some cheesecake, caramel slice, plum pudding and roast dinner.  Sylvia added some of her creamy mushroom pasta to her roast dinner.

When I got home at 6pm Sylvia and E had not had their gingerbread pudding with butterscotch sauce.  They were quite full from lunch and had been intending to eat it later.  It ended up being me and Sylvia who ate it in the evening after E had gone home.  It is very nice but not as special as my mum's Christmas pudding.

Here are some of our Christmas presents with my jumper that I wore in the morning when it was cold.  Who'd have thought the first year I bought a Christmas jumper was the year it was so cold I could justify wearing it.  (I got my own child labour involved in it and asked Sylvia to cut off the bells which were too much for me.)  I got a book and some chocolate and a parmesan grater but my best present is a voucher for fondue in Zurich (stay tuned ...)  Sylvia also got some travel money as well as candles, body mists, Grinch socks, miniature pizza and groceries, a jewellery box and gingerbread shortbread.

I was excited to find a Moon Chart for Sylvia.  We used to have a moon chart on the wall of student households and would check the moon.  Sylvia loves the moon so I am sure she will enjoy checking its cycle.  She also got the cute floofy dinosaur, cactus pot, a snakeskin agate necklace and vanilla incense in the below picture.

I will finish with a reflection on the festive season.  This year I've been listening to the Band Aid Do They Know It's Christmas single.  I loved that song as a kid.  Now, especially in light of some of the world events this year, it strikes me as uncomfortably colonial.  Band Aid was about raising money for famine victims in Ethiopia.  In the 1980s we all admired Bob Geldolf for his passion and generosity.  Reading about the haste in which the song was cobbled together might explain why today it seems it would be more appropriate to call it 'Why should they know it's Christmas?'  It seems so patronising to pity the starving kids because "they don't have snow in Africa at Christmas time" and they don't know about Christmas.  It shows how much attitudes have changed that we no longer assume everyone in the world celebrates Christmas, even in our own country.  Like so many religions, Christianity values treating all people well and working towards peace.  And so I wish you all peace and goodwill of the season.

More posts from past Christmases at Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:

• Christmas day presents and pudding (2011) 
  
• Christmas day food, presents and quicklinks (2013) 
• Christmas day food and reflections (2015) 
• Christmas day food, reflections and quicklinks (2016)
• Christmas day food, presents and random links (2017) 
• Christmas - cheesmas tree, food, presents and random thoughts (2018)  
• Christmas eating 2019 (including Coburg Night Market)
• Christmas eating (2020) 
• Christmas In My Kitchen (2021)
• Stuffed Tofurkey and Nutroast for Christmas day (2022)