Christmas on the Quiet

Luvverly Bollie Bubbles

Like many people we have met this year, Christmas was to be a quiet affair.  For the first time in over 30 years Christmas Day in our house would be without the sight and sound of children - whether young or old!  How strange to have just two bodies unwrapping those wonderful gifts from under the tree - which by the way was almost a non-event this year as this Crafty Retiree was adamant that she was not going to put that darn tree up when no-one would be around to see it!  The "Other Half" had a few different ideas and the tree was resurrected from it's dusty home in the roof and erected in the corner of the family room.  Well.... one could hardly let such a forlorn sight remain untouched and by late afternoon on Sunday, 11 December, the wretched tree was standing high and proud in full regalia.  One can view a couple of snaps on my Christmas page. However, I digress - back to our "quiet" affair.

There is something a little weird about opening gifts from under the tree and not being able to share the joy of receiving with the "gift-giver" - especially when for so many years there have always been others to share the joys of this special tradition.  And another sad part of the day was that unlike previous years when the homely kitchen scents of roasting pork and turkey wafted through the house, the only culinary smells were generated from a very late breakfast at 11am - roasted coffee, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast -oh, and one should not forget the luvverly bubbly and orange juice. However, the day did improve.

With brilliant sunshine and no sign of rain (unlike in 2010), we elected to enjoy the pleasures of the home "resort" and laid our lunch table out beside the pool.  After a wonderful relaxing hour in the pool (water temp was 29.4 degrees), we prepared ourselves to indulge in the wonderful delights of real Aussie seafood - tiger prawns, Balmain bugs, WA lobster, smoked salmon, and Tassie oysters - with olives, sundried tomatoes, seafood dip, and homemade cocktail sauce.  Topped off with a wonderful bottle of Bollinger bubbles - now THAT is what I call a Christmas culinary delight!

As always on Christmas Day, we over-indulge ourselves with food and drink, but this year for me it was without the added stress of cooking a full traditional hot lunch - the only thing traditional was the homemade pud with brandy cream and custard that we enjoyed much later in the evening. 

So for the first time in over 30 years, Christmas Day on our own was not such a bad event after all.  I hope that you all enjoyed your Day as much as I did with my "Other Half", no matter how it was spent.