A Sanity Christmas

24th & 25th December

A quick blog this time to catch up and stop me getting lazy! And to start, for all you Marx Brothers fans out there, yes, I know there ain't no Sanity Claus.

I thank you!

Oh, well, please yourselves.

Christmas Eve began with a very mild morning, a noticeable change from before the weekend. We managed to beat the rain to get down to the shops to stock up on perishables like bread. I'm pleased with myself this year, I seem to have managed to avoid the siege mentality that normally overcomes me, stocking up with stuff as if we were about to cruise into some shopless hinterland for a fortnight. It's important to have enough in to get through Christmas with everything we like to have on that day, of course, but not to have the cupboards and fridge so stuffed that it all falls out whenever you open a door.

To be fair, just having the two of us around on the day helps as well, mind.

As we were settling to lunch, Cala backed out of the yard and set off on her maiden cruise at last. Peter and Gill have been amazingly patient (not that they had much choice) but could be seen to be sporting the Braidbar Grin, the expression on the face of anyone who's just moved onto their new boat, and which takes (in our experience) about 6 months to wear off.

We had decided to have a turkey on Christmas Eve this year, so the afternoon passed in making chestnut and sausage stuffing, and butchering the turkey in preparation for my experiment of cooking the legs separately.

This was accomplished without too much trouble, and with only one spill of cooking juices on the floor. It's certainly much easier than the usual hassle of trying to cook two totally different kinds of meat at the same time.

We had the breast meat for dinner, with stuffing, new potatoes and steamed sprouts.

The Internet had already gone very quiet, and we spent a relaxed (hup... pardon) evening listening to the rain falling outside.

I was briefly awake at 5 in the morning, and considered getting my revenge for all those years when the kids were small, by ringing Elanor and Graeme and saying "Happy Christmas... can I open my presents now?" Managed to resist it though, fell asleep again, and we had a very relaxed start, lazing in bed until 9, eating the usual breakfast and then making some Buck's Fizz with Aussie "champagne" and tropical fruit juice. Just as we were preparing to open the presents the kids started ringing up, and had to be told they were too soon for feedback on their gifts.

We duly rang Elanor back to congratulate her on two fiendish choices, a huge (as in six and a half foot square) crossword puzzle for Sheila, and a device of wooden blocks and cords holding a wine bottle tantalisingly fastened up for me. At time of writing (Boxing Day afternoon) I've still not got it open, and am nearly reduced to nutting the thing. Thank you Elanor.

We were feeling a bit cabin feverish before lunch (nothing to do with the Buck's Fizz) so went for a short walk to freshen up. Back at the boat I cooked our lunch of huge hip bone steaks, red wine sauce, baked potatoes and steamed Savoy cabbage.

The afternoon was spent in traditional fashion for those not cursed with a TV. We read, struggled with our puzzles and the Indy Quiz of the Year and eventually had a light supper of beer and turkey sandwiches. (Yes, I know, it's difficult to make a beer and turkey sandwich as the beer all dribbles out and makes the bread soggy.)

Graeme rang back, so we were able to thank him for their presents. We have been looking for the lesser known novels of Robert Neill (the Mist over Pendle guy) for some time and Cathy and Graeme had not only found two of them, Rebel Heiress and Black William, but the latter was a first edition signed by the author. It's going to have to be covered in brown paper before we dare read it.

And so we tottered off to bed at an early hour, after a quiet but eminently satisfactory Christmas.