Well that’s Christmas done for another year, and thoroughly enjoyable it was too!

Christmas day was spent eating, French-style, over several hours. Adrian had done almost all the food prep and we had a magnificent feast; soup, foie gras, salmon ring, turkey, beef and all the trimmings, followed by the most fantastic Christmas pudding, his first attempt at making one and a resounding success. We also had a treasure hunt, with cryptic clues and the threat of a forfeit for anyone unable to solve their clues and find their treasure. Nick was under threat of running round the courtyard in his underpants, while I would have had to eat my Boxing day lunch without using my hands! Luckily we all solved our clues.

It’s a tradition in the Rhoney household that on Boxing day you make Christmas dinner sandwiches. These have to contain some of everything you had in your Christmas dinner, except the soup and the pudding, (but including the gravy!), so we set to with a will; foie gras mixed with smoked salmon (I’m sure that must be considered a heresy around here), to be piled up with sprouts and carrots, liberally topped with turkey and beef, parsnips, gravy and for Kieran, the inevitable squirt of burger sauce. You can imagine how difficult these are to build and eat, but trying to do this when the bread is replaced by rice cakes takes it to a whole new dimension!

We spent several hours on Boxing day trying out Ade’s new recording studio; he even got Kieran playing the drums and Nick the bass guitar. It actually sounded OK, which all goes to prove that you only need one musician amongst a bunch of muppets!

Then home, sweet home. After two very late nights, all any of us wanted to do was curl up by the fire and chill; but we’d been invited to Kate and Rob’s party, so off we went, without any great enthusiasm. What a brilliant evening it turned out to be; after discovering that dancing here means jiving, I’ve been keen to learn, but nobody I’d asked would agree to teach me, so I asked some of the fellas at the party, who unanimously volunteered Jean-Michel, poor bloke. So I got my first lesson last night and will have another after we’ve done the setting up for the new year’s eve do, next Sunday 😉 Another few years and I might start to get the hang of it!

Another 2am finish; we’re shattered. An early night tonight, methinks.