Well, December has arrived and I now need to start feeling Christmassy - I am hosting Christmas lunch at our house this year.
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I spent the weekend in Adelaide, catching up with Kirby for her birthday (Bri came too) so that was lovely. We just hung out and had some nice meals out too. I made Pioneer Woman's Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake - Lordy, it was good! More on that later...
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Local Bird in the Hand Pinot Rose...
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Lunch at Rain (on The Parade) - dumplings in curry sauce...
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Pork sweet & sour ...(I wanted to steal this plate!)
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Thai green chicken curry - nearly my favourite - so many places in Adelaide do it, can't find a bad one!
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I got all my decorations that we need to transform our pergola area outside into a red, green and gold wonderland (Kirby is in charge of that!). Its usually windy so we will probably have paper cups and plates flying all over the lawn! A warm, calm day would be lovely, Santa - fingers crossed!
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Boxes for my 'sister' presents to go in...
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Bon-bons - lots of bon-bons!
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More baubles to hang under the pergola - those packs were only $3 and the big balls $5 each...
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Paper plates, serviettes, tablecloths and candy canes...
I think we are expecting about 22 (+/-) adults and 13 children (+/-) so we use paper plates which makes clean up much easier. Everyone brings meat and salads so the pressure is not all on me to provide for all.
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I started a bit of baking last night but these are going to my brother-in-law who had a hip replacement op yesterday. He loves chocolate and mint so the Choc Candy Cane cookies will hit the spot. Also, some of my Cherry Shortbreads.
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I have made the Christmas pudding, for Christmas day I will make stuffing muffins, a watermelon, mint & fetta salad, we'll do a glazed ham and I also, for the first time, have a frozen turkey to cook but this might be cooked in the BBQ on Boxing Day (26th) to serve hot - we'll see. I got it because is was out for $25 instead of $40. At this stage, I think Gus' side of the family are coming on Boxing day rather than us catching up Christmas Day. It's just too hard to head off somewhere else when you've hosted that big lunch.
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How are you preparations going or haven't you started. I need to get our tree up in the next few days (or on the weekend)!
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Cheers - Joolz xx
OOh I love the red and white snowflake bonbons !!
ReplyDeleteI would love the recipe for the choc candy cane cookies. They would go beautifully in my hampers Joolz :)
ReplyDeleteHappy to oblige!
DeleteYour preparations are well under way and looking rather wonderful. I'm hosting Christmas too this year and it will be special because Mum will be with us. Three of her four children live in Melbourne and she's usually at home in W.A. at Christmas. I've got my menu planned and we all chip in so that it's not too big a job for anyone. This Christmas tree will go up in the next few days. Enjoy your preparations.
ReplyDeleteAnne xx
Love those gift boxes! Christmas lunch outside sounds great. We never know what the weather will be like, some years we have had heat waves which makes it uncomfortable. We are planning a Christmas open house. My family has become a bit weird with regards to holidays. They come or they don't. So planning for a crowd, otherwise we will be eating leftovers for days.
ReplyDeleteI have been sitting here at the desk most of the day doing my planning...meals, decorating, cleaning. Feel lazy, but at least I have a few necessary and helpful lists.
blessings, jill
Our tree is up, I always do that the weekend of the Mt Gambier pageant. Everyone is coming to ours for lunch on christmas day too. I've started delegating who's bringing what, we are going with disposable stuff too, much easier!
ReplyDeleteFINALLY got around to making your cherry shortbreads. Y. U. M.
ReplyDeleteI blogged about it, and linked back to you. :)