Dinner, 25/12/15: Christmas Feast!

As is our custom, Christmas dinner with friends. Here are chipoloatas in bacon, brussels sprouts, bread stuffing...

...roast parsnips, roast beef, roast potatoes...

and of course Yorkshire puddings and a stuffed turkey crown. 

And of course there was gravy, too.  And yes, I did eat the whole plate of food!

Dessert, I hear you say? Key Lime Pie and a Raspberry Meringue Frozen Thingy.

Stockings at the ready...

Christmas Eve Party!

Our friends down the road always have a party on Christmas Eve (it's their son's birthday) - I always make some treats to share.  This year I had "pizzadillas" (like quesadillas, but with pizza tomato sauce, mozzarella and salami inside), feta and dill cucumber bites, 

and parma ham and celeriac parcels (I make these every year - everyone loves them).   There was lots more food there, but these are the things I brought along!

Book 113: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I was thinking I'd read this years ago (though I couldn't remember the plot exactly, just sort of knowing the overall arc from years of hearing it mentioned in discussions of the development of the detective novel). Having now read it, I don't think I ever did read it years ago.  I certainly didn't remember much about it.  That said, it was great. More Wilkie Collins for me, and soon!

Christmas windows

Our annual trip up to London to see all the windows and Christmas lights today - usually we find that we prefer Selfridges' windows to Harrods, but this year was a definite exception - Harrods' windows were really sweet and very clever. I haven't actually taken any photos of the main parts of the windows, which were cute, but quite plain - just some largeish mice "helping" in various scenes like at a ballet, etc - the good part, though, was the sub-windows, down near the bottom of the display, which showed the secret world of the mice. For those with children, you might be reminded of Brambley Hedge - we were.  (Found this article which shows a good view of the windows overall). We just loved all the little scenes with the mice, though - I took loads of photos!

The windows at Selfridges were totally different - based on the zodiac - and were very hard to photograph, but we enjoyed them. 

...and here's some lights in Regent Street as well!