Christmas 2014 has now come and gone. As ever, the Christmas season was a whirlwind, thus leaving very little time to write about the whole thing. I shall try to do my best to write about the highlights.
The Christmas season probably started in earnest with Abigail and Imogen's school Christmas concerts. Abigail had a Madrigal's Christmas concert first, which was absolutely stunning. Mrs. Fredricks, the Rancho Bernardo choir director, always picks wonderful, classical pieces for her students to sing. Chorale concerts are great, but Christmas chorale concerts under Mrs. Fredricks are fabulous! My favorite song, without a doubt, was their arrangement of the Coventry Carol. The singers were dotted throughout the audience for that song, and Abigail was actually quite near me, so I could hear her singing. It was very beautiful and very sad.
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| Mrs. Fredricks at the Rancho Bernardo Choir Christmas concert, with Abigail in the background. |
Then, a few days later, the drama department, the dance department, the orchestra and Madrigals choir all joined up for a production of the Nutcracker! It was an impressive production, and the orchestra especially sounded great. Imogen was in the orchestra, and Abigail of course in the choir. Every year I try to take the kids to a production of the Nutcracker and a performance of Handel's Messiah, and Tim insisted that this counted as our Nutcracker outing. I was about 85% OK with that.
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| Madrigals singing at the Nutcracker |
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| The orchestra at the Nutcracker |
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| Abigail, nothing if not a performer! |
We went to a matinee performance of the Nutcracker, and then that evening went to our ward Christmas party. The party had a Bethlehem theme, so there were different middle eastern type market stalls set up around the church hall. We were encouraged to come in a Bethlehem costume. Both Tim and I are terrible at costumes, so I had just planned to miss out on that part of the party. But on Saturday morning - before the Nutcracker - Tim found himself in a charity shop buying fabric to make some kind of costume. I kept telling him he was crazy - I can be very supportive like that when the time pressure is on - but somehow between the hours of 3pm-5pm he managed to make several costumes, despite having many troubles with my infuriating sewing machine, which definitely has a mind of its own.
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Georgie making oil lamps at the Bethlehem Christmas party
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Some stalls at the party ....
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| Drinks stall, run by the Skinners |
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| Our friend, Pam McKiernon, with the baklava! |
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| Bethlehem, a la Ramona, CA |
The primary gave a little nativity play; hence one reason for Tim's sudden creative drive to make costumes. Samuel was the innkeeper, and Georgie, Nelly, and Verity were asked to sing a Christmas song called 'Mary's Lullaby'.
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| The Bleakley Bethlehem-ites! |
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| Georgie, Nelly and Verity sing at the play |
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| The end of the nativity play |
The next week, I finally finished work for the term!! Yea! I simply hadn't had a chance to do any Christmas preparations with the pressure of work. I finished on a Wednesday, and the next day, Grandma and Grandpa Bleakley arrived all the way from England for Christmas!!
That weekend, we had our annual Christmas baking weekend. We bake at the beginning of December to make our Christmas cake, gingerbread ornaments and mincemeat, and then we bake the weekend before Christmas to make treats for our neighbors and friends. We made pecan tarts, mincemeat pies, jam thumbprints, marzipan, and peanut brittle. Then we very strongly encouraged our reluctant children to go caroling around our neighborhood as we delivered our treats.
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| The famous pecan tarts. |
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| Abigail makes the very more-ish jam thumbprints |
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| The Christmas treat plate, ready for caroling! |
A few days later, we had our requisite Christmas chocolate making session - still in our pajamas, I'm afraid.
The fun, however, was just getting started. Every Christmas, I try to do something with the kids that will help them reach out to those around them at this special time of year. Most of the time, we pick a family to get a few gifts for or something along those lines. But last year we did something a bit different. We were in Idaho last year, living with my parents. We decided to put on a little evening of Christmas music for the elderly people at my parents' church, particularly those who didn't have family around. It was a lovely experience, so we decided to do something like that this year as well. We ended up having what we called a 'soiree' - an evening of music and food at our home to fellowship with those around us.
Well, it was a blast. It was, actually, a full on Christmas party. Imogen, Samuel, Eleanor and Verity all performed Christmas songs, as did other people we invited. Abigail sang 'Baby, it's Cold Outside' with Matt Woolley, and the two brought the house down. And then, of course, there was the food .....
Stressful though it can be, I love holiday cooking. This party was the perfect outlet for all that pent up creativity - or greediness? There was soup - butternut squash; celeriac, apple and stilton; and beetroot and cranberry. We had all kinds of bread, including a jalapeno and cheddar loaf that was fabulous. Proscuitto, smoked salmon, and of course my requisite Christmas cheese board, with homemade tomato and pumpkin chutneys. Mandy Sommers brought wassail, which was very well received. Desserts included my Christmas cranberry and pear trifle, Nigella Lawson's pumpkin cheesecake and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's chocolate chestnut cake, plus lots of cookies, chocolates, etc. My favorite dish of the night, though, was a homemade smoked trout pate. Simple, I know - it was just smoked trout, horseradish, crème fraiche and fresh dill mixed together, but it was absolutely superb!
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| Part of the Christmas spread - soups, breads, cheeses, and desserts |
Somehow, I managed to only get one picture of something other than food - rather typical, I'm afraid. Here's proof we had kids dressed up in their finery, ready to perform by the Christmas tree.
In the meantime, there was sightseeing to be done with Grandma and Grandpa! Grandpa loves sailing, so one day before Christmas Grandpa, Grandma, Tim, and the three little girls went out a boat in Mission Bay and, reportedly, had a blast.
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| Grandma and Grandpa on the water! |
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| Grandpa in his element - although surely a little warmer than the Irish sea? |
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| Grandma and Verity |
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| Eleanor |
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| Georgiana |
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| Timothy |
