Be kind to yourself at Christmas.

Easy dinner for Christmas Day - very little prep to do. Just the two of us. No roast - venison steak (thanks to the suggestion here on GN.
DH always does breakfast every day but tomorrow he's making my favourite - eggs Benedict.

Nigella's slow cooked treacle / gammon is in oven. That's for boxing day.

Rained on dog and myself during morning walk so now chilling by the wood burner and I have a Bailey's coffee. Lit candles in the window. Feeling pleased with my snowman and Christmas tree (new hobby).

Zoom session booked with DD this evening. She's driving (1 hour) to family friends with GD early in the morning for Christmas dinner then driving back home. They were stopping overnight. Trying hard not to worry about her.

Stay safe everyone and best wishes for 2021. Hope it brings us positivity.

Yesterday I made some bread so that today I could make breadcrumbs for the stuffing.

I duly made the stuffing this morning, after picking some sage leaves from the garden, then decided to get as far ahead as I can:

-Got the pork out to thaw.
-Made white sauce.
-Made the mashed potatoes - bet no one notices tomorrow that they have been warmed up. ?
-Picked and trimmed my Brussels sprouts.
-Picked some leeks.
-Extracted a very reluctant parsnip from my garden, then spent ages trying to brink my freezing hands back to life.
-Made two lists - one of exactly what meals/foods I prepare to serve tomorrow and when, and another detailing what time certain jobs will need to be done in order to achieve that.

I have a feeling that's only a fraction of what I did, though the rest escapes me right now. There will only be 4 and a quarter of us eating here tomorrow, and I often do a roast dinner for us all, so I have been asking myself how preparation for tomorrow can possibly require all this forward planning. ?

The only explanation I can come up with is that they will be here all day, so it's not just serving a main and a dessert. Oh, and I want to have enough time spare to join in with the fun parts of the day, too, and not just be tied to the cooker.

This afternoon, I have been for a walk, then lounged on the sofa for a while listening to an audio book ☺

Thank you for saying that cornergran. We'd been so looking forward to having DS, DIL and the 2 GC for Christmas. Now that is all off and it's just the two of us, I'm actually quite enjoying the calm and having time to do everything 'properly' (instead of trying to juggle stuffing the turkey, playing a game of marbles, watching Frozen and having an intense conversation with DIL all at the same time!) There's something to be said for a quiet Christmas occasionally!

I cooked gammon joint made orange sauce for the duck stuffing for chicken. Prepared all the vegetables and made red cabbage side dish daughters favourite.
Happy Christmas everyone wherever you are and good health.

This afternoon we'll be stuffing the turkey crown and making Jamie's mulled wine glaze for the gammon which I started off in the pressure cooker yesterday. DH will do the veg and the pigs in blankets and I'll make a fish pie for this evening.

I always make loads of work for myself.....I'll never learn.

I loved Motherland last night.

Gammon joint cooked, bread sauce and stuffing made ready for tomorrow. I love Christmas Eve even more than the day itself.

Merry Christmas everyone

Showered, long Cristmas jumper on, lipstick and perfume-----and not a soul in sight but I feel good.
Turkey stuffed and cooking, giblets on with 3 cats sniffing the air. Washing on ( boiled whites ) and coffee in hand.
This is me taking things easy at my own pace, no rushing.Bliss.

Easy Christmas food here with just the the two of us to feed. Off to meet two grandchildren and their Dad for a walk, lots of FaceTime but no mess tomorrow. Probably the calmest and easiest Christmas here for years, yes there’s underlying sadness at not being with our Littlest but it’s not all bad. .

Nothing to do here and I’m generally kind to myself every day and it doesn’t involve makeup ? I’ll make myself a roast tomorrow but it’s no biggie I’ve done it many times for loads of people so doing it for 1 is simple. I did put the radio on but found all the Christmas songs just made me sad and maudlin so that went off. I’m gonna have a roast beef sandwich on granary for lunch though yummy.

But I agree do something nice for yourself whatever it may be.

My husband is preparing the turkey as we speak. Sausage rolls and mince pies this afternoon, yummy
I'm helping by keeping out of his way

Ddaisymae mine is similar- no point harassing ourselves!

Crumbs! I have a ready made main, just doing the veg later then microwaving the pudding tomorrow. See no point in making work!

I agree, I support! Thank you! arrange a holiday for yourself)