Christmas 2014, Part II

 

 

     I continue writing about Christmas, even though we are somehow now in February.  With all the parties, baking, caroling, church Christmas programs, sightseeing, and shopping, Christmas was soon upon us.  During the day on Chirstmas Eve, the little girls and I spent the morning making Christmas hampers for a few friends.  The hampers always end up being one step too far, but I still loved making the stuff:  beetroot and cranberry chutney, pickled fennel, gingerbread biscotti, chocolates, and hot chocolate mix.  I also put cheese and biscuits in the hampers as well, but they weren't homemade. The finished product was pretty cool, I thought:  



 

 

       Christmas Even we had our traditional fish soup, made with saffron and tilapia, both of which are meant to be reminiscent of Jesus.  Tilpia is also known as 'St. Peter's fish', as it is supposed to be the fish which Peter caught when Jesus said 'Let down your nets'.  And saffron - well, they had saffron in Jesus's time, and it gives the soup a gold color, so I figure Jesus is King of Kings, and gold is the color of kings.  It's a stretch but it works for us.  We also had our cheese board, bread, etc., plus homemade mince pies for dessert. 

    
     Then it was onto our traditional family nativity play, where we act out the Christmas story as a family, read scriptures, sing carols, etc.  Abigail managed to secure the role of Mary, Samuel of course was Joseph, and Tim took on his usual role as the donkey.
     Finally it was bedtime!  Stockings were hung up and treats were left for Santa and the reindeer.  Suffice it to say that Tim and I got to bed much, much later than the children.
     Christmas morning we did the whole stocking thing - the Bleakley tradition is that stockings are hung up in the children's rooms, and the children open their stockings when they wake up and before they come downstairs, and then then all come into our room with their stocking gifts and watch Tim and I open our stockings.  This year the kids woke up and opened their stockings at about 3am, so we heard lots of screams and shouts in the middle of the night and I had to go upstairs to tell them to be quiet.  But somehow, miraculously, they all went back to sleep, and slept so soundly that I woke up at about 8:30am to a completely quiet house!  I had to end up waking them up on Christmas morning!
     We had a lovely breakfast with our now traditional 'Christmas casserole' - a succulent bread, egg, sausage and cheese creation, with the addition of peppers and dill to make it even more fabulous. And then it was time for the present-opening fest. 

The Christmas tree on Christmas morning, with Abigail trying on her new lipstick



Tim gets his big gift - a Go Pro camera, which he insisted was way too cool for him
 

     I had done most of the cooking for the Christmas dinner in the few days before, so the mammoth task of the traditional English Christmas feast was significantly less mammoth, and we actually ate at a relatively early hour. The kids would never forgive me if I didn't put on the familiar spread:  turkey, roast potatoes, gingerbread stuffing, Brussels and chestnuts, mashed swede and carrot, roasted parsnips, chipolatas wrapped in bacon, red cabbage and cranberry sauce.  So that's what we had, with a Christmas pudding that had been cooked to perfection in ... the pressure cooker.
     The day after Christmas we followed another family tradition:  the Boxing day walk.  It was very odd walk in the sun rather than in the cold and clouds, but we still had a lovely walk.  We went to Torrey Pines near La Jolla and did a combination of a sort of forest walk/sea cliff walk.

Abigail walking along the trail

The sea cliffs at Torrey Pines

Samuel and Georgiana

     The next day we took Grandma and Grandpa to see Old Town San Diego.  We took them first to the Mormon Battalion, and then to see the old buildings and shops in the old town square.  We loved the old fashioned candy store, and the candle store, where the kids got to dip candles.

Dipping candles in Old Town

     And then, there was a miracle of miracles. What I forget to mention is that it had actually been rather cool during Christmas.  It was getting down to freezing every night, and perhaps getting up to the 50's during the day.  And then, on 31 December, it SNOWED in Julian, which is just up the mountain from us about 20 miles away.  So it was absolutely clear to us what we had to do.  All other plans and commitments had to be dropped, and we had to go to Julian, immediately.  Unfortunately the whole of the population of San Diego had the same idea, so the tiny town was overrun with people. But we still had a great time.

Georgie and Verity in the Julian snow

Cabin in  Julian

A tiny Julian street

Samuel helps Verity through the snow

Trees in Julian

     When we got home, we made ourselves hot chocolate and threw in a gingerbread biscotti (a current obsession):

     On New Year's Day, I got to spend the day grading exams.  Yeaa!  I'm a bit of a bah-humbug type of person when it comes to New Year's anyway, so I didn't mind so much.  But Shirley and Dave were leaving soon, so they needed to get out for one last excursion.  They chose to go see some very ships down in the San Diego harbor.  Dave, I know, was in heaven. But as for Shirley, I'm not so sure ....



"So it's a sailor kissing a nurse, who looks very uncomfortable" quote Dave

Christmas 2014, part 1

 

 

     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. 



 

 

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.

Madrigals singing at the Nutcracker

The orchestra at the Nutcracker

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.

Georgie making oil lamps at the Bethlehem Christmas party

 

     Some stalls at the party ....

Drinks stall, run by the Skinners

 

 

Our friend, Pam McKiernon, with the baklava!

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'.

The Bleakley Bethlehem-ites!

Georgie, Nelly and Verity sing at the play

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.

The famous pecan tarts.

Abigail makes the very more-ish jam thumbprints

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!



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.

 

Grandma and Grandpa on the water!

Grandpa in his element - although surely a little warmer than the Irish sea?

Grandma and Verity

Eleanor

Georgiana

Timothy

 





Thanksgiving New Mexico Style

     Thanksgiving 2014 has come and gone, and again we managed to make it quite an event.  Perhaps its from 18 years of living in the UK and therefore being required to make Thanksgiving a Really Big Deal in order for it to happen at all, but this holiday always seems to be associated - in both my mind and the minds of my children - with well-rewarded effort.  Family, friends, food, a holiday with history, and a respite from work - the basic elements of Thanksgiving stack it with a high chance of success. 

     So this year, we went to visit my lovely Aunt Kelly and her wonderful family in Las Cruces, New Mexico.   We went to Las Cruces to see Kelly and Karl. It was great, except for the blasted drive.  10 hours, I think it is.  The kids were really good about it, but still a pain.  I haven’t been to Las Cruces since 1995, so it was fun to go back.  Kelly and Karl have a lovely, spacious home, with a constant fire roaring, dogs lying on the floor, and horses out the front.  Tim said it reminded him of his friend Dale Phillip’s house – a country gentleman’s home, only quite near the Mexican border. 



Me chopping onions for the sourdough stuffing

     Kelly and I cooked ALL DAY on Thursday, as we didn’t eat until about 5pm.  We had the requisite turkey, yams and apples, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie; the biggest mount of mashed potato I have ever seen; sourdough bread, sausage, pecan and kale stuffing; a modernized, upscale green bean casserole, made with bacon, sour cream, provolone cheese and mushrooms; and the ‘all-hail’ 7-up lemon jello salad.  I also introduced the family to the British Christmas speciality of Brussel sprouts served with pancetta and chestnuts, which went down very well. 



A rather large mound of potatoes

 



Roasted and peeled chestnuts for the brussels

 

 

 

The Thanksgiving spread!

 

I made 2 of my signature apple crumble pies, and Kelly made her New Mexico speciality of chocolate pecan pie.  Kelly and Karl live right across the street from the biggest privately owned pecan orchard in the world, and Kelly’s pantry is teeming with huge bags of freshly shelled pecans.  So of course pecan pie was a must for the menu. 

 

 

The pies ...

     Kelly and Karl have 6 children, all in their 20’s or late teens.  There are 5 boys, all of whom are of a rather giant stature.  Several of the said boys play college baseball and/or minor league baseball.  I was worried just about feeding our 8 and Kelly’s crew.  But when we arrived, there was talk of who else was invited to dinner – including the possibility of the New Mexico State baseball team.  In the end, only 2 players showed up, which seemed manageable, plus two other guests, making the grand total at dinner 21.  And by a miracle, there were somehow lots of leftovers, so we got our turkey and cranberry sandwiches the next day.

     On Friday, I got to go to Santa Fe.  Manisha Thakor, one of my best friends in the world, lives there with her huband, Randy.  The last time I saw Manisha was in 2004, when she came to visit me when we lived in Princes Risborough.  Since then, it has been nigh impossible to make our paths cross, especially with me living overseas.  So when we decided to go to Las Cruces for Thanksgiving, I immediately tried to think of how I could get up to Santa Fe. It’s a four hour drive from Las Cruces to Santa Fe, but it was worth the sacrifice! 

     Manisha and Randy took me out to a fabulous restaurant where I had the most amazing crab-stuffed chile relleno. Then we dropped Randy back off at the house, and Manisha took me into Sante Fe, which is the second oldest town in the US (after St. Augustine, in Florida).  But since we hadn’t seen in each other in so long, sightseeing just took a back seat to all the catching up we had to do.  We sat in a beautiful cathedral, and talked.  We walked around the old streets, and the old town square, and talked.

     When we were in college, Manisha and I spent three weeks touring Europe together –the cheapest way possible.  So we had very long train rides together, and very long walks around places like Paris, Seville, Madrid and Florence.  We talked A LOT on that trip. And last Friday, it really was as if nothing much had changed.  We just picked up right where we had left off.  The sign of a true friend, I think.

     While I was in Santa Fe, Tim and the children went with the Koepers up into the mountains to chop down a Christmas tree.  There was snow there, apparently, which was really nice for the kids.  We don’t cope so well with the wonderful California weather, especially in the autumn or winter months. 

 

     Karl spoiled us by giving each child, plus Tim, a ride in his private plane.  The lovely Kelly, always in good form, also spoiled the younger girls by giving them a morning with the horses.  Eleanor, especially, was in heaven!

 

 

     On our trip we also got to see the fabulous Jemma and Rob Kennedy and co in Phoenix.  They always make us feel so welcome when we come, and we always have a blast.  This time it was a lovely ham dinner, a Downton Abbey fest, great conversation and chili scrambled eggs for brunch.    

Verity with Sophie and Emma Kennedy

The Kennedys and the Bleakleys - next generation

 

     This week, it was back to business as usual, except we have Christmas coming up, so it’s all go.  We are slowly but surely getting our Christmas presents purchased, and this week we got our tree and Christmas decorations put up.  Our living room has very high ceilings, so Tim and I developed some sort of delusion of grandeur and decided to get a big tree to go with our high ceilings.  I think the tree is about 9 feet high or so –beautiful, but, admittedly, rather expensive.

 

 

It's Christmas, even in California.

For the first time EVER, we have Christmas lights on our house!

 

Chopping the nuts for the Christmas cake

     And we have started our Christmas baking!  This weekend was the traditional making of the Christmas cake, with everyone involved, except Imogen got out of it this year with an irresistible invitation to go ice skating in the rather exclusive La Jolla.

Grating the nutmeg

 

    

Creaming the butter and sugar

I made my ‘traditional mincemeat’ – meaning, mincemeat made with real mince, as they did in Tutor times, and we also made our annual gingerbread Christmas tree ornamets.  On Friday we also had our annual viewing of A Christmas Story.  It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and the kids are so excited.
  

Tim does the annual wrapping of the cake in a brown paper bag

The cake - to be stored until Christmas!

Gingerbread ornaments for the tree

     Yesterday Georgie said to me, ‘I love everything about a lot of things, but especially everything about Christmas!’  A wonderful time of year.