Christmas morning I woke up first and made breakfast. I'd intended to make blueberry pancakes and eggs, but the pancake mix here was very thin and they turned out more like crepes - very hard to get the blueberries to be in them properly. Sigh... silly England and English food. But the crepe-pancakes turned out tasty and the blueberries were eaten on the side. We ate and then opened presents.
We had a lazy afternoon. We both called home through Skype, which was nice. I'd gotten very homesick on Christmas eve, missing my family and all our traditions, so talking with everyone was especially important for me. I sent them pictures and they sent some back - it was strange to see them all gathered around our Christmas tree without me.
Then it was time to start thinking about Christmas dinner. Because we'd slept in and had a correspondingly late breakfast, we didn't start thinking about dinner until about 5pm. But we realized that we only had a bottle of wine. Not such a big deal for me, but Neal's family celebrates with a bit more alcohol, so we went out in search of some. Luckily, I live close to the Curry Mile, where Western holidays aren't celebrated so heavily. We got two kinds of cider and some beer at a little gas station shop. That probably sounds sketchy, but gas stations & little shops are much different here - there's quality food and fruits and veggies along with the snack isle. So, satisfied that we'd be entertained and not thirsty while cooking, we headed back to begin.
Now, the cooking/eating situation here is rather interesting. Living abroad for only a year means that you don't bring/buy things that you'd ordinarily have around, like baking trays. You don't even buy ingredients because if you had the ingredients, you'd want to buy trays to make the desserts and it would result in an endless spiral, ending when you had to sell, trash, or ship everything to come back to the US. And it's also tricky, because you don't want to use cheap, crappy equipment all year, but you also don't want to buy nice things that would have to be gotten rid of or shipped home (which is expensive!). So we spent the first part looking through my flatmates' cupboards to scavenge cookware to use. We cleaned everything back up and they were all home for break, so I don't think they minded ;)
Neal cooks very well, so I was helping and learning as we made dinner. Might I just say that it was a very impressive dinner? Not only was it fun to make (company in the kitchen is one of the best things ever), but it was beautiful to look at as well as tasty & delicious! We had Venison with Red Wine Sauce, croquettes, real cranberry sauce (we started with cranberries and sugar, not with a can), mashed potatoes, and corn and beans. red wine (and cider) to drink, and for dessert we'd bought a Black Forest Gateau. It was amazing. Definitely one of the fanciest dinners I've been involved in making! It helped make this Christmas a very special one.
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