Christmas Dinner 2011

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I haven't had much time to update this blog as the Christmas Season has been rather busy. Christmas Eve Dinner was held at my house and my family together with The Lovely Wife's family came over to celebrate the arrival of Christmas.

This was the menu for the night and more detailed posts on the items soon - I hope!

In the meantime, Have a Blessed New Year!

My Birthday Hamper

I turned 44 on the 29th November 2011 and this is how I spent the day. Just like we celebrate every birthday in our house, the birthday boy/girl is wished first thing in the morning and given their gifts. The kids each gave me a lovely hand made card and then proferred a bag full of gifts. First up was the 'obligatory' shirt from The Lovely Wife. She always buys me a nice shirt / T-shirt to make me look more hip and happening - usually something a little more expensive than I would otherwise buy! Then came the gifts from the kids that were specially chosen by them. Somehow gifts from the kids seem to revolve around the kitchen but I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that.


First up was this cute flexible cutting board that is shaped like a duck! The tagline says "from board to bowl with one simple fold".....



Next was a pair of kitchen chopsticks or wok chopsticks - very useful indeed! Then came a nifty little gadget. It looks like a small bowl but it has blades in it and it turned out to be a garlic chopper. The reasoning behind this was that "Mummy doesn't need to help Dads chop garlic anymore!"

Finally they gave me a small, sealable glass container that is oven proof. This was explicitly purchased so that I could store the chocolate sauce that I make for them and reheat the sauce in the oven/microwave easily. Rather clever of my kids if you ask me - getting me a present that will benefit them! All the presents were really lovely and will definitely come in handy.

Then it was off to work and the day unfolded rather uneventfully.


We had decided that we would go out for dinner and it was after dinner that The Lovely Wife and kids surprised me yet again.




They had purchased some of my favourite food items and presented it to me in a basket - like a hamper!





The contents of the hamper consisted of "the stuff that Dads likes" - a Jar of Nutella - coz Dads loves his Nutella and bread; A small bar of Dark Chocolate - the best chocolate is dark chocolate; a double packet of Arnotts Chocolate Covered Teddy bears - Dads favourite from his Uni days in Melbourne; a packet of Pepperidge Farm Geneva biscuits - we all love this; a large bottle of Coke - Dads loves his coke and the kids get to drink it too - and finally a bottle of Guinnes - coz Dads enjoys his stout once in a while.

I was very touched by the hamper as it was really made up of a few of my favourite things.

Now to digress a little, but not too much! When I was in Australia, I learnt of a special way to enjoy Arnotts Chocolate Covered Teddy Bear Biscuits. There's a real trick to this so you have to pay attention. First, get a wide mouthed glass or coffee mug and pour in some port. Next, holding the Teddy Bear so that it faces you, bite of a little bit off its LEFT ear and a little bit off its RIGHT foot. Now dip the right foot into the port and suck on the Left ear till you taste some port. What has happened is that the entire teddy bear is now steeped in port. Now you slowly eat the teddy bear infused with port. Delicious!

I did that last night but I used Brandy instead of Port. Why did I use Brandy instead of Port? Simply because I was too lazy to go and fish the port out of the cupboard! It was still delicious although the brandy was probably a tad too strong as opposed to Port.

The Lovely Wife felt a bit sad that she didnt get me a cake but I told her that the hamper was much more special as a lot of thought went into it. The kids also piped up and reminded her that "bought cakes arent as nice as Dads cakes so dont bother!"

I had a very lovely Birthday celebration. Happy Birthday to me!