Christmas recap

One of the perks of living in the British Commonwealth is that the day after Christmas - Boxing Day - is a holiday in its own right, and the majority of people have it off from work. We went for a walk this afternoon, to get some fresh air and run a couple of errands to a couple of shops we knew would be open. We strolled along deserted streets and 90% of the businesses we passed were closed - some of them just for today, some until after New Year's, and one for the whole of summer vacation (it is scheduled to re-open February 5!). It was pretty much the only serious exertion in a day that included staying in pajamas until almost lunchtime, skyping with various North American relatives, and reminiscing about yesterday's Christmas lunch (while plotting what to do with a fairly enormous stash of leftovers).

There were six of us for lunch, and we ate outside! That's a Christmas first for me. Here's what we had:



Starters
- olives stuffed with blue cheese
- sweet and spicy roasted mixed nuts
- smoked salmon dip with pita chips

Mains
- roast turkey (stuffed with bacon, sage, and walnut stuffing and cooked on the barbeque by our friend and guest M)
- baked ham (glazed with homemade stone fruit jam and dijon mustard)

Sides
- Italian baked potatoes with oil
- braised peas with scallions and mint
- bok choy slaw with carrots and cucumbers
- tomato, avocado, and blue cheese salad

Desserts
- chocolate chip cookies
- Christmas cutout cookies
- gingerbread
- yankeefied mince pies
- zodiacs sugar cookies
- oat-fruit bars (filled with homemade pear-cranberry-ginger jam)

How was your holiday? Eat anything good?

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