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Feb. 15th, 2012 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raynebowranger
As promised - the update of hugeness... Where to even begin?
Well... in November my brother got hitched to Dawn. It was a small service at the registry office, just James, Dawn, Dylan, Amy, Mum and Dad. I stayed home to look after the animals and the office so Mum and Dad could stay and look after the kids while James and Dawn went to Amsterdam for their honeymoon. They had some gorgeous photos taken. Bit sad I couldn't be there, but glad there are pictures.
I made their wedding cake. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. There were a few dents and kinks in it, but overall it looked pretty nifty. It was a two tiered fruitcake with marzipan and royal icing. The central flowers and the horseshoes weren't edible but the smaller flowers were.
The other major event, was of course, Christmas. I sent out the invitations and menus. Not quite a full house this year unfortunately. Jean and Ray couldn't make it due to Ray's health and it's the first year we hadn't all spent Christmas together. It was more than a little weird. Jean popped over Christmas morning to open presents with Nan, and bring her over to our house for dinner.
This year's menu:
Starter: Prawn Cocktail, pâté with Melba toast, or fruit juice.
Intermediate: Lemon or raspberry sorbet.
Main: Pork, turkey, seasonal veg and all the trimmings.
Dessert: Christmas pudding, lemon posset, pavlova, or chocolate pudding.
Cheese: A selection of cheese and biscuits.
Coffee: Coffee and after dinner mints.
Backing up to just before Christmas, mind. There was the making of the cakes. Just one for us and one for Nan this year since James and Dawn had their wedding cake and a birthday cake earlier in the year.
Our cake!
Nan's cake!
I also made my usual treats - marizpan chocolate balls in white, milk and dark, as well as green marzipan topped with cherries...
I also made some treats for the dog using balls of bread coated in dog chocolate. The trees were decorated. And by trees, I mean forest, I think this year we had at least 14, plus 5 tree shaped lights. There were also all the other decorations to put up, and we even had outdoor lights this year. They looked lovely! And of course, I had to help Santa by wrapping some of the many presents!
Christmas Day 2011: As usual, there was a lot of preparation involved. Christmas Eve was a hectic rush to get things done. The table needed setting - lining with catering paper, table cloths, table mats, candles, hot trays, glasses, cutlery (which needed polishing), place names, table gifts, table favours, crackers. All the vegetables that could be prepared in advance were prepared, all the stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and sausage balls were prepared. Mum prepared the chocolate puddings and modified the pavlova and I prepared the lemon possets. I sorted serving dishes and pans ready for the Christmas dinner.
Mum also set my hair in curlers for me. And of course, we had to take a break to watch Merlin. And there was a quick trip to Nan's early in the day.
So, sometime in the night, Santa visited to lay out those presents I mentioned. What a glorious sight it was Christmas morning!
Mum had already gotten the pork and turkey into the oven and started steaming the Christmas pudding. So I started on the other many jobs. I plated up the after dinner mints and arranged the cheese board, using all my cheese flags. I prepared the starters (prawn cocktails and pâté with melba toast). Dad poured us all a bucks fizz and sorted balloons and music.
When there was a moment's peace, I headed off for a bath and to get ready. I wore a skirt! A skirt! And a belt! I also had a few spare minutes to do my make-up and finish my hair.
The cooking went quite smooth. It's always hard with a multi-course sit down meal to get timings perfect. The brussel spouts were a little too overcooked, but nothing terrible - at least they weren't mush.
It was a lovely meal. The atmosphere was brilliant, even if we did miss Jean and Ray. The kids were well behaved at the table, and kept going for a little bit of a play and opening a few presents as we went along since every other year when we've waited until after dinner they've fallen asleep before all the presents are opened.
Once dinner was over, a taxi took Nan home and the kids were put to bed. The grown ups settled down with drinks and nibbles to open the rest of the presents - I miss the days of getting up at the crack of dawn to open presents! And of course, Lady finally got to open hers!
Present list 2011:
From Mum and Dad: Angel bear, chatimal meerkat, Casanova DVD, a ring, bras, Nono hair remover, earrings, TARDIS badge, paw Italian charm, perfume, craft stampers, Chinese charm set, Dissidia 012, & a TARDIS penny.
From Dad: TARDIS Italian charm & felt tip pens.
From James, Dawn, Dylan & Amy: Cooking for Geeks cookbook, bathbombs and a coaster.
From Dylan & Amy: Ladybird earrings.
From Nan: Taylor's Port and cheese set & a diary.
From Jean & Ray: Grandma's Best Recipes cookbook & Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy cookbook.
From Roger & Barbara: Japanese Cherry Blossom bath set from the Bodyshop.
From Sandra: Perfume set.
From Lady: A dog treat recipe book.
From Tandy & Charlie: A kitty shaped bottle opener keyring.
From Josephine & Anna: Watercolours.
From Karen: Galaxy Moments.
From Allison: Button earrings.
From Julie: Rose bath gift box from Boots and a make-up palette.
From Santa: Coaster, bedsocks, bath poof, candy cane, clover and handcream.
Boxing Day we had a buffet tea and enjoyed some family time together - including drinking and SingStar once the kiddies had gone to bed.
On the 27th, James, Dawn, Dylan and Amy headed home. It was lovely having them to stay, but I was glad to get my bed back!
New Year's Eve was a quiet affair. Mum, Dad and I stayed in and enjoyed some drinks, boardgames and SingStar.
And New Year's Day we enjoyed a family meal. Pâté for starters, duck for main and Bailey's chocolate pudding for dessert, followed by cheese and biscuits.
And done! That was the condensed version of events from Christmas 2012 in the Carr Household!
Nothing much of interest has happened so far this year - it's mostly a cycle of work, sleep and RP. Picked up a shiny new Woody muse from Mad Dogs, he's a lot of fun to play, and I have a Campbell Bain muse from Takin' Over the Asylum, and of course Donna and Gene and a few others.
The recent snow was enjoyed by Lady. It was quite lovely really, didn't linger too long, didn't turn too icy to walk on.
Well... in November my brother got hitched to Dawn. It was a small service at the registry office, just James, Dawn, Dylan, Amy, Mum and Dad. I stayed home to look after the animals and the office so Mum and Dad could stay and look after the kids while James and Dawn went to Amsterdam for their honeymoon. They had some gorgeous photos taken. Bit sad I couldn't be there, but glad there are pictures.
I made their wedding cake. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. There were a few dents and kinks in it, but overall it looked pretty nifty. It was a two tiered fruitcake with marzipan and royal icing. The central flowers and the horseshoes weren't edible but the smaller flowers were.
The other major event, was of course, Christmas. I sent out the invitations and menus. Not quite a full house this year unfortunately. Jean and Ray couldn't make it due to Ray's health and it's the first year we hadn't all spent Christmas together. It was more than a little weird. Jean popped over Christmas morning to open presents with Nan, and bring her over to our house for dinner.
This year's menu:
Starter: Prawn Cocktail, pâté with Melba toast, or fruit juice.
Intermediate: Lemon or raspberry sorbet.
Main: Pork, turkey, seasonal veg and all the trimmings.
Dessert: Christmas pudding, lemon posset, pavlova, or chocolate pudding.
Cheese: A selection of cheese and biscuits.
Coffee: Coffee and after dinner mints.
Backing up to just before Christmas, mind. There was the making of the cakes. Just one for us and one for Nan this year since James and Dawn had their wedding cake and a birthday cake earlier in the year.
Our cake!
Nan's cake!
I also made my usual treats - marizpan chocolate balls in white, milk and dark, as well as green marzipan topped with cherries...
I also made some treats for the dog using balls of bread coated in dog chocolate. The trees were decorated. And by trees, I mean forest, I think this year we had at least 14, plus 5 tree shaped lights. There were also all the other decorations to put up, and we even had outdoor lights this year. They looked lovely! And of course, I had to help Santa by wrapping some of the many presents!
Christmas Day 2011: As usual, there was a lot of preparation involved. Christmas Eve was a hectic rush to get things done. The table needed setting - lining with catering paper, table cloths, table mats, candles, hot trays, glasses, cutlery (which needed polishing), place names, table gifts, table favours, crackers. All the vegetables that could be prepared in advance were prepared, all the stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and sausage balls were prepared. Mum prepared the chocolate puddings and modified the pavlova and I prepared the lemon possets. I sorted serving dishes and pans ready for the Christmas dinner.
Mum also set my hair in curlers for me. And of course, we had to take a break to watch Merlin. And there was a quick trip to Nan's early in the day.
So, sometime in the night, Santa visited to lay out those presents I mentioned. What a glorious sight it was Christmas morning!
Mum had already gotten the pork and turkey into the oven and started steaming the Christmas pudding. So I started on the other many jobs. I plated up the after dinner mints and arranged the cheese board, using all my cheese flags. I prepared the starters (prawn cocktails and pâté with melba toast). Dad poured us all a bucks fizz and sorted balloons and music.
When there was a moment's peace, I headed off for a bath and to get ready. I wore a skirt! A skirt! And a belt! I also had a few spare minutes to do my make-up and finish my hair.
The cooking went quite smooth. It's always hard with a multi-course sit down meal to get timings perfect. The brussel spouts were a little too overcooked, but nothing terrible - at least they weren't mush.
It was a lovely meal. The atmosphere was brilliant, even if we did miss Jean and Ray. The kids were well behaved at the table, and kept going for a little bit of a play and opening a few presents as we went along since every other year when we've waited until after dinner they've fallen asleep before all the presents are opened.
Once dinner was over, a taxi took Nan home and the kids were put to bed. The grown ups settled down with drinks and nibbles to open the rest of the presents - I miss the days of getting up at the crack of dawn to open presents! And of course, Lady finally got to open hers!
Present list 2011:
From Mum and Dad: Angel bear, chatimal meerkat, Casanova DVD, a ring, bras, Nono hair remover, earrings, TARDIS badge, paw Italian charm, perfume, craft stampers, Chinese charm set, Dissidia 012, & a TARDIS penny.
From Dad: TARDIS Italian charm & felt tip pens.
From James, Dawn, Dylan & Amy: Cooking for Geeks cookbook, bathbombs and a coaster.
From Dylan & Amy: Ladybird earrings.
From Nan: Taylor's Port and cheese set & a diary.
From Jean & Ray: Grandma's Best Recipes cookbook & Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy cookbook.
From Roger & Barbara: Japanese Cherry Blossom bath set from the Bodyshop.
From Sandra: Perfume set.
From Lady: A dog treat recipe book.
From Tandy & Charlie: A kitty shaped bottle opener keyring.
From Josephine & Anna: Watercolours.
From Karen: Galaxy Moments.
From Allison: Button earrings.
From Julie: Rose bath gift box from Boots and a make-up palette.
From Santa: Coaster, bedsocks, bath poof, candy cane, clover and handcream.
Boxing Day we had a buffet tea and enjoyed some family time together - including drinking and SingStar once the kiddies had gone to bed.
On the 27th, James, Dawn, Dylan and Amy headed home. It was lovely having them to stay, but I was glad to get my bed back!
New Year's Eve was a quiet affair. Mum, Dad and I stayed in and enjoyed some drinks, boardgames and SingStar.
And New Year's Day we enjoyed a family meal. Pâté for starters, duck for main and Bailey's chocolate pudding for dessert, followed by cheese and biscuits.
And done! That was the condensed version of events from Christmas 2012 in the Carr Household!
Nothing much of interest has happened so far this year - it's mostly a cycle of work, sleep and RP. Picked up a shiny new Woody muse from Mad Dogs, he's a lot of fun to play, and I have a Campbell Bain muse from Takin' Over the Asylum, and of course Donna and Gene and a few others.
The recent snow was enjoyed by Lady. It was quite lovely really, didn't linger too long, didn't turn too icy to walk on.
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