Christmas goose

In the early morning the first scents of Christmas Day, wafted through the house,as I prepared home made chicken stock for the gravy , started infusing the milk for the bread sauce and prepared the braised red cabbage - a rich mix of onions, bay, cloves and nutmeg. A breakfast of coffee and stollen marked it as no ordinary day.

The family part of the day didn't start until early afternoon (as none of my boys are early risers) when, having put a turkey crown and gammon in the oven, we all headed off for a walk round Ferry Meadows. It was such a beautiful winter day, and it was so special to have all five of us out together. We made a Christmas bird list, ending up with a respectable total of 33 species, of which this feral greylag goose (very much alive and kicking) was one. 

It was then time for a quick cocktail of sparkling wine and clementine juice with a dash of grenadine, before finishing off the dinner. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our very traditional meal, and every plate was completely cleared.  We lingered over a range of cheese and some port, before finally getting round to opening our presents, all of which were fairly practical - jumpers, socks, underwear, gloves, hats and, of course, some books. I had tie-died t-shirts for the boys and Lizzy, and thankfully they were all impressed with their creations. Pete had made them all flavoured vodkas - Chris's chilli vodka is potentially lethal, though he seemed to enjoy it!

The only slight low-point in an otherwise perfect day was when Alex developed an allergic reaction after the meal. We think he may be sensitive to food and drink containing histamine - a Christmas meal contains these in abundance as they are particularly found in red wine, cheeses, nuts, dates and preserved meats. Interestingly he has never liked chocolate, strawberries and raw tomatoes, which are also potential culprits, so maybe he had a mild reaction to them when he was very young. Fortunately an antihistamine tablet calmed down the symptoms quite quickly!!