First Christmas Day at home

This is the first Christmas day we had at home .. turns out to be a great big blessing that we did not drive anywhere. Please read further to look at what happened at our deck.

The menu plan was as follows and trust me when I say that my entire fridge is packed full of extravagant food. We had a big ham waiting to be studded and glazed. Prawns marinated in lemon rind, garlic and chilli to be skewered or the BBQ. And a whole snapper on the BBQ steamed in a foil package.

The kids tore into their presents this morning. We had balloons everywhere, stockings filled with Hot Wheels cars and gifts under their little tree. I received this from Mick - the porcelain ring with Love written on it. Mick realised that I wanted it and ran back to Issa Home Wares. :) Thank you! But it was the wrong size. Boo! He must think I have fat fingers or will have fat fingers after chowing into the ham.

For breakfast, I did buttermilk pancakes. One word nommmyyy. It is different to the normal pancakes that I do in terms of texture and it had a 'crusty' edge. It is a nice change but I am not sure that Mick thoroughly liked it. He ate it nonetheless... probably because it was covered in butter and maple syrup.

Then the fun begins with the ham. Skin it, get the glaze and then bake. I ran out to Bolton street and bought some salads. Glad that there were some spare ones in the fridge for sale. So ta daaaa we had surf and turf. The oysters that I collected from my friend was so amazing. It tasted creamy and I really need to find out which sort they were as I think I need to get them next time.

Had another coffee after lunch, just because.. and grazed on the mochi as our dessert. There was a tray filled with half red bean mochi and half was custard mochi made by a friend's Auntie. OMG these are the best ever and the sad thing is. Money cannot buy these, she will only make these on special occasions!

So we were lounging around the deck while the boys ran up and down with their trolleys. Got on and off their bikes as they zipped up and down. Decided it was looking like rain was coming in and moved the cushions off the deck lounge. One hour later, it absolutely bucketed down with hail. It was so heavy that I held onto D and had to pretend that I was not scared. But I was scared! When it stopped, we did a stock take around the house to see if anything was broken in the hail. Look what I saw!

The BBQ idea had to be dropped. We had the snapper in the oven, put a bit of rice on in the rice cooker instead of salads then pan fried the garlic prawns. I think I will be doing a Nigella Lawson and grazing on cold ham and mochi straight from the fridge. Kids were thankfully easy to get to bed.. actually I think that I will chow down some more mochi right now. Better wait for Mick to come back in from draining the yard.