Christmas!!!

Xavier's first Christmas!!!

                                               

Being in London, we had such a great build-up to Christmas Day. Experiencing all the festivity such as Winter Wonderland, shopping at Harrods, eating mince pies and drinking cinnamon Cafe late's all contributed to the beautiful day of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. This year we celebrated with John's family and what a great day it was. Unfortunately it still wasn't snowing, but a cold Christmas we definitely had, thus using the outside table as a fridge to keep the beers chilled!

John had food poisoning the day before Christmas eve, but he fortunately recovered quickly and could enjoy all the delicious food James prepared for us!

Christmas Eve

Finished all the last minute shopping and wrapping! Just love this time of the holiday!

Christmas day!

I woke up so excited and couldn't wait to go down to the Christmas tree. Forget about the coffee, Hayley and James popped the champers and we started the day off very merrily! Merry Christmas everyone! Little Xavier got the most gifts and most were bigger than him! It was so special to share these magical moments with our little monkey!

I made a few canape's, just to line the stomach because that first glass of bubbly already went to my head! We had Smoked salmon on blinis, chicken satays with a sweet chili jam and tomato and basil phyllo tartlets.

James was in charge of the Christmas lunch. He made a delicious leg of lamb, Christmas Gammon (his mother's secret recipe), oven roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts with crispy bacon, braised red cabbage and of course a delicious gravy. A proper English sunday roast!

 Jackie and Jennifer

 For dessert (which we had much later, because we were so stuffed from the lunch) I made Christmas Cup cakes and chocolate brownies with fresh berries and chocolate ganache. 

Christmas Ham is a must.  Even if you don't eat it, it still makes a wonderful centre piece! The satisfaction you get when you bite into that golden brown, perfectly scored skin is priceless. I adore it with a home-made apple and sage sauce. Here is my version of a quick and easy glaze.

My Christmas Ham Glaze

100ml brown sugar

7 ml ginger

5 ml mustard

10 ml smooth apricot jam

Mix together and rub over the scored ham. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200 C until slightly brown and crispy!!!