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It is Christmas eve, we have been cooking and cleaning all day and are now watching Carols By Candlelight on the telly. It is time to look back over all the fun of being out and about over the festive season. To start we have the photo of the Confectionist Bakery in Degrave Street above - it was such a cute gingerbread window artwork with the cosy lights of the bakery inside. They had gorgeous decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread.
I went to my workplace festive dinner for the fist time. I had been curious to see how they accommodated the thousands of staff, Everyone queued for a zaatar flatbread with falafel (or chicken), salad and dip, plus a festive sweet treat (above). Then we took it is a box back to our office to eat. My office is a block away so my colleagues and I each carried a lunch box with a mince tart or brownie on top of it quite some way before eating together by our desks. The falafel lunch was ok but the mince tart was lovely.
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We took a picnic to a Christmas Carols. I chopped up the fruit and made Vegetarian sausage rolls. Sylvia made pesto pastry Christmas trees, a goats cheese and boursin pinecone with tamari roasted almonds and a charcuterie board with grapes, salad, brie, vegan mushrooms deli slices and vegan salami served in a Christmas tree plate with crackers. It was excellent.
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Here is Sylvia's plate of food at the carols. So good!
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At the carols, there are lots of fundraising activities and one of our favourites is to purchase stars to remember kids who are no longer with us. We decorate one each for Alex and Ian at the craft table and hang them on the Christmas tree. Sylvia's star for Alex was very cute with a pickle wearing a santa hat!
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I was very grateful to Sylvia for the idea of making the sausage rolls for carols and keeping some back to take to the history society Christmas lunch the next day. They were very popular with one guy seeking me out just to thank me for bringing them. It was impressive how much food everyone bought: dips, chips, quiche, brownie, stollen, mince tarts, chocolate cake, watermelon and cherries from a member's backyard tree.
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It seemed a good idea to go to the city later in the afternoon so we could have dinner and look at the Myer Christmas windows before it was dark enough to see the festive lights. By the time we had Lord of the Fries burger and chips at Fed Square and see the windows, we were too late to go to most of the shops - Wednesday was not late night shopping - but too early for the lights. It was still fun to look around.
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We shared a peach and raspberry trifle ice cream in Degraves Street. Yum.
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We spent a white browsing in Dymocks just before it closed. It is such a great bookstore. But by the time it closed, the Block Arcade was shuttered and we just got into see the decorations in the Royal Arcade but the shops there were closed.
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We were late enough that there was not too much queuing for the Myer Christmas windows. The theme was Lego and most of the scenes were santa getting ready for Christmas.
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The best window was the last one with Santa and his reindeers flying over the Melbourne Cricket Ground with its light towers and Myer Music Bowl, which is an iconic place in Melbourne's Christmas because it is the venue for the Carols by Candlelight that I am watching tonight.
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It was a fine sight to see the Christmas tree in the City Square which has recently reopened after being closed for years while the Metro Tunnel was being built. The Town Hall station entrance can be seen behind the tree (and the town hall clock tower behind that)!
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Here is the Town Hall lit up for Christmas with images of a tram, a Christmas tree, people meeting up and native flowers. Last time I saw it the light projections were on rotation but this year so I was surprised that there was only one image this year. We were too tired to go back to Fed Square by the time it was dark to see it lit at night. It it times like these I wish we were in the Northern Hemisphere with it getting dark early.
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We had a quick visit to a December Coburg Farmers Market which had some stalls offering fine festive food. The Dubai chocolates at Holy Nuts were very tempting.
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We returned to DTs for a Zachary Bird popup vegan Christmas Roast dinner. The first course of "Damona dairy-free brie cheese baked in puff pastry, drizzled with [his] vegan hot honey, olives & figs" was excellent. I love that melty brie and it was Sylvia's first time eating it - she loved it too!
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The main course was to have been "Christmas glazed vegan chicken half, yorkshire pudding, bacon-wrapped brussels sprouts, triple cooked baby potatoes, peas & gravy." The chicken halves had been held up at customs so we got seasoned seitan instead. Honestly I was never going to like the chicken halves or the seitan because they are not my sort of vegan food but Sylvia enjoyed tasting the seitan and a yorkshire pud and loved her meal.
The vegan tiramisu that Sylvia had was not such a hit because she found the home made vegan marscapone too tangy. I tasted it and found the flavour fine but I am not one for coffee or creamy desserts. I was pleased when I said I did not like coffee that I was offered the cannoli with black forest filling which was nice.
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A wreath on a door I saw on the Upfield bike path in Coburg. I was not sure if this was still there afte Halloween or just a unique take on the festivities. The house had a giant skull in their front yard so the skull in the wreath was not a surprise.
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A local yard with Christmas yards that we passed on evening.
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We went to the Coburg Village drive in to see Gremlins at the end of a hot day. On the way home, we stopped to admire the lights in Tanderum Drive in Coburg. Love the blow up minion and bluey characters. It was so lovely to stand outside looking at it as the cool change blew about us.
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Last night we went to see some Christmas lights but stopped at Luthers Scoops for a festive ice cream. In the queue the woman behind me said: I don't know who eats marzipan - only old people. I was offended as that was the one I wanted. I had two half scoops of marzipan and chocolate. The marzipan ice cream was great when there were chunks of marzipan but the large pieces of almonds weren't as good. Sylvia enjoyed her pavolva and bourbon eggnog half schoops in a cone.
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We then went to our favourite Shaftsbury Street house of Christmas lights only to find yet again there was a long slow queue because not many people are let in the front yard at a time. It took over 45 minutes of queuing this year! We had tantalising views of the lights as we queued. I loved seeing the giraffe but wished I was really tall and could look over the fence.
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The lights inside the Shaftsbury St yard are amazing with so many details that it takes a bit of looking around to appreciate them all. Lots of signs, characters, little houses to peer in and changing colours on the lights.
By the time we left Shaftsbury St there was not time to see many other houses but we had a look at a couple of other favourites - Molesworth Street with its life sized dancing Grinch, and Loch St.
The Carols by Candlelight have just finished and I need to do a last check around the kitchen and presents before heading to bed so I am up bright and early on Christmas morning. It has been such a difficult year, especially with the recent Bondi shooting, that I an quite aware that it is not a fun family occasion for everyone. I wish you a merry Christmas (if you celebrating) and send warm wishes to all - both those who are celebrating and those who are having a tough time.
More Festive posts on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
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