WHAT WE DID ON CHRISTMAS DAY

(My last jigsaw puzzle for the season.)

Wednesday, 12-25-24 - Christmas Day:

Early in the day we had a FaceTime call from my family across the pond. A lovely chat for about an hour. They had already had their festivities the day before. This was from my brother-in-law (who is more like a real brother as I have known him since I was 13 years old), and my niece and her beau, a delightful conversation.

Later, when son and daughter-in-law arrived, the four of us sat down at 2 o’clock for our meal. We set everything out on the kitchen table for everyone to help themselves and moved into the dining room. 

Another tradition since my childhood, Christmas Crackers at every place setting. Just before settling down to the meal, each person grabs the end of each cracker, forming a circle around the table and pulling each end. There’s a slight pop caused by the popper strip threaded through the cracker - you can see what those look like here - I also didn’t realize you could buy kits to make your own which I found online. I usually buy them on sale after Christmas, to be used for next time. 

Inside are 'crowns', folded-up tissue paper, which are worn during the meal. It is thought they may represent the crowns of the three wise men. Invariably these fall off heads during the meal and sometimes tear as they are so thin, but all good sports try to keep them on their heads until the end of the meal. There is also a small piece of paper inside written with a one-line groaner joke, and one sentence of trivia from somewhere in the world. Each person takes their turn reading theirs while everyone else begins their meal. We laugh at the groaners, and trivia learned is often interesting. 

A small trinket falls out of the cracker when pulled, a key chain, a compass, a type of wire puzzle, or a yo-yo, another tiny goody. Silly but fun and another tradition I introduced my own family to from childhood, and which we have enjoyed since our son was knee-high. I think they may be becoming popular in the States, as I see Christmas Crackers on sale in a lot of the stores. You can find more expensive looking trinkets inside depending on how much you want to pay for the crackers. And then if you make your own, any small gift can be put inside. If you would like to learn how these came about, you can click on this link.

The menu below has become our traditional meal, though the charcuterie board was new thanks to my dear other half who thought it would be a good idea for the hungry while waiting for the main meal. 

Menu:

Charcuterie Board, with three types of olives, cubes of feta, snap peas, small red peppers that were a little hot but not too much so. Gregg described them as tangy. There were also small, sweet red peppers, stuffed grape leaves and a pot of hummus. This was put out an hour before the meal.

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with Brown Gravy

Roast Potatoes, Carrots and Asparagus, with a Green Bean Casserole (all enjoyed but Gregg’s favorite was the casserole that his dear mother always made when growing up).

Dinner Rolls (we all like the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls)

Dessert: Pumkin Pie (son’s favorite), Cherry Pie (Gregg’s favorite), and because my family always had one on the Christmas table since I can remember, a Chocolate Yule Log.  

A bottle of Prosecco, no red wine today because I forgot to put it on the shopping list but had the Prosecco already chilled.

We always try to pick things on the menu with everyone’s taste in mind and everyone enjoyed their meal…

and ah now, the Yorkshire Pudding. It was decided to cook it in the 9" glass pie plate, a jigsaw puzzle to try and fit everything in and we had the two ovens full. They are smaller than a regular oven would be but still an okay size. 

The plan was to take the roast out to rest, leave the potatoes in to continue roasting and pop the Yorkshire Pudding in to cook the 20 minutes on 475, as the recipe suggested. Well…I said…that rack looks awfully high, but Yorkshire Pudding was put in and 20 minutes later when the timer went off, we opened the door.  Let’s just say we all had a good laugh and I said once again, “Good grief!” 

It had risen extra high and had ‘grown’ up into and around the elements. When Gregg pulled the dish out, half the Yorkshire Pudding stayed. We couldn’t stop laughing. We won’t be making Yorkshire for a while now, but what was salvaged was surprisingly tasty. 

Now, all this being said, it is very important to give the pudding room to ‘grow’.  Place on the rack in the middle of the oven.  And most definitely don’t use the top shelf. 

Do not use more than the 2 tablespoons of beef fat either (click on the link here for when I actually cooked our previous test-run Yorkshire Puddings.

When our darlings had left, Gregg set to dislodging burnt bits of Yorkshire Pud from the now cold elements. He will have another go tomorrow he said.

Here’s a compilation of photos thanks to the new app I downloaded on my iPad a few days ago.

The other gift from my Darlings was a new ornament for my wing themed tree. The first in a series I was told. It's beautiful and best of all it's made out of wood!  So many intricate little parts, I would dearly love to see how it was made from that first design to cutting out the pieces, painting them and putting altogether. This part of my curiosity comes from when I used to cut out my own designs and paint ornaments back in my craft show days, all painted on wooden shapes.

Our daughter-in-law asked if we would like to hear her sing again and I was very happy as I never like to impose, especially as they had to leave to go on to her parent's home soon.  She chose O Holy Night and one sung in German, Silent Night. It was amazing to hear her! I have shared her videos in German with my brother-in-law who asked me if she spoke the language as her dialect was perfect. She doesn't actually speak German she has told me before, but she knows many songs in that language. How she gets up to those high notes impresses me no end. She has the purest voice, a soprano.

Our Darlings left a few hours later straight from our house to our daughter-in-law’s parents for their second meal which was served in the evening.

Late afternoon the phone rang and it was the second Facetime that day with our niece and her beau. Her Dad had gone home by then and we chatted away for another hour, telling each other about our day and generally catching up on each other’s news. We both had our Yorkshire Pudding stories and both had a good laugh. Neither of us will be making it any time soon.  I for one am now tired of it and yes, gasp!  Well, at least til next year and we will give it another go. Did the heart good to be chatting to my niece, that’s for sure.

We relaxed for the rest of the day. That was our Christmas. 

I look forward to reading about yours very soon. I'm so tired I am off to bed, and so is my dear other half. I will be back tomorrow.