Hut Christmas 2013 - the big day

It may just go down as one of my most favourite Christmas days ever, despite not meeting up with family for the traditional lunch feast (my family is overseas and Rob's were having a quiet Christmas.) It meant we didn't have to rush, and with two babies who need feeding and naps at regular intervals it was a relaxing day without an agenda.

But it also felt right this year to be just us. We had an early Christmas lunch on Sunday with Rob's elder daughter, the girls excitedly helping her to open presents, and enjoying the books she gave them.

When the girls woke early on Wednesday for their first feed I got Rob to pop a few presents from us in their stockings. After their birthday we kept their gifts simple for Christmas, a read, a wear and a play each. He brought them into our bedroom. The girls were still a little sleepy.

A cute pair of suede slippers each and a pink onesie. The girls were sure they were edible.

Claudia wasn't really impressed.

The girls like their breakfast as soon as they wake, snacking on bananas, peaches, ham and a little cooked egg yolks. Rob and I settled for ham and fried eggs with coffee.

The dogs added to the festive ambiance as I had tied a bell to their collars. We could hear them jingling all day, which I love.

We decided to bathe the girls as they had smeared egg yolks all over their faces (the joys of baby led weaning!) They get quite excited by their big girl baths, splashing, chatting and babbling away. The day was already warming up so we let them play for awhile before wrapping them up in white towels to dry and dress.

We continued to open gifts, slowly getting through the pile. Rob looked quite sheepish about a box for me. So he should, it was a hand held vacuum cleaner!

Luckily he made up for it with 500g of Belgian chocolate, some Italian Torrone and a gorgeous marble pear.

I must admit I thought he would do that, so I returned the favour with new socks and jocks. 

The girls understand the presents are for them, and are interested in the wrapping and the very tasty gift tags! 

But it was so exciting they did need a nap!

The day was sunny and warm. We drank coffee and tea, listened to Handel's Messiah on the radio, rang family to wish them a Merry Christmas. Eventually the pile of presents under the tree all ended up unwrapped and spread over the table. We were all spoilt. 

By now it was lunch time. So we ate a simple salad with some cheese. The girls were happy in their high chairs, looking out the open bifold doors. 

I quickly made up Maggie Beer's almond and cumquat pudding and set it on the stove to steam for 4 hours. Then we retreated to the bedroom where it was a little cooler. At first the girls were so excited they just sat on our bed laughing and flapping their arms in delight. It was so lovely to see, and Rob and I both were taken back to last Christmas in the NICU, to our first cuddles with two tiny premmie babies. Last year we dared to hope that we would spend a second Christmas with them, and to see them happy and healthy together at home is the best gift we could receive. We are so grateful for our two miracle babies. After a feed from me the girls fell asleep between us and I even snoozed til 5pm. 

It was still warm so we packed up the girls and the dogs and drove to a nearby dog beach. The dogs chased sticks (and some poor little dog!) and we waded in the surprisingly warm water with the girls in our back pack carriers. It really was a serene evening. 

Back home we ate another salad with some cold ham, the girls munched on cold potatoes and a little ham too.

My pudding was unveiled and covered in the candied cumquats I'd made a few days previously. For a gluten free adaptation it was pretty good!

After one last cuddle and feed the girls were ready for bed, and Rob and I after reflecting together on our day fell asleep not long afterwards.

How was your Christmas? 

Hut Christmas 2013 - Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from all of us at the hut.

We had a perfect day. I will be back to share a bit of our day soon.

Hope your day was just as lovely.

Marian xxx

Hut Christmas 2013 - Christmas Eve

As a child Christmas Eve was as exciting as the big day itself. My mother's family being Hungarian traditionally celebrated on the Eve of Christmas. The five of us children grew increasingly excited during the day, wondering about what would be under our grandmother's tree and all the treats we'd eat. We would all take turns to shower, Mum would iron our good clothes and around 7pm we'd make our way to my grandmothers. For most if my life she lived two houses down the street. Then she moved into the flat behind our home, so we didn't have to go far. 

She always had a real pine tree, that would have only been set up and decorated a few days before. Old fashioned glass baubles and icicles hung between the wide spaced branches, lollies carefully wrapped in crepe paper for enjoying later on, and fine tinsel artfully draped. Underneath would be gifts from my grandmother, aunt and uncle. We loved that we got to start Christmas early! 

But presents had to wait. First we would snack on pretzels, peanuts and potato crisps. Fizzy drinks were freely passed around. The dinner was usually cold chicken, ham, salads, and hard boiled eggs. As there were quite a few of us, we usually sat on chairs with our dinner perched on our laps. 

Then it was time for our presents. We loved that part. A new toy or some clothing, we would sit about admiring our gifts while the adults chatted.

Dessert was often a pavlova (not very Hungarian!) As young children we were allowed to stay up later than normal (probably 9.30-10) and then we went home to get ready for bed and put our pillowcases out on the end of our beds for Santa to fill. Often we were very excited and took a while to fall asleep!

Since my grandmother passed away a few years ago the Christmas Eve party has faded. The last few years we have headed north to spend Christmas Eve with Rob's parents. Usually a duck ballottine and a bottle of champagne starts our Christmas off together perfectly.

This year we have stayed at home. The girls really need to be getting ready for bed around 7, which makes dinner time a bit tricky! Today we had another slow day. Rob mowed the lawns, I set the table with roses and candles. We opened a bottle of bubbles, and enjoyed a glass while the ham baked in the oven, and we watched the girls try to climb up the book shelves! We ate a simple dinner of glazed ham, steamed pink eye potatoes and sugar snap peas from the garden. The girls were pretty good, sitting in their high chairs, and enjoyed mash potato, peas and a little ham, but were a bit over tired so I am typing this on my phone while I feed them to sleep. 

Rob also made a gluten free mince tart with that well matured fruit mince we made last year. I'm hoping to enjoy a slice in bed!

 

Happy Christmas Eve to you!

Hut Christmas 2013 - baking and food

We woke up on Saturday morning and consulted the cook books for baking and food inspiration. Stephanie Alexander's glazed ham was chosen.

We baked a gluten free version of her Christmas cake on Saturday too, so we will have to see what we think of that. 

We were quite relieved to track down our ham today after a morning in town yesterday (the farmer's truck broke down delaying delivery at the market). 

The days have been grey, cool and drizzly, so we both did some baking today, Rob made a gluten-free version of his Mother's shortbread recipe and I made some gingerbread and candied cumquats. 

On Wednesday we'll eat ham with some vegetables or a salad, and I'll make Maggie Beer's almond and cumquat pudding (converted also to gluten free) with home made vanilla custard ice cream.

What is on your Christmas menu?

Hut Christmas 2013 - gravlax

We would normally cure a side of ocean trout for Christmas Day, but as we just did it for the girls birthday party we didn't think we should double up!

Nothing could be easier to prepare for the big day. We started the birthday gravlax on the Tuesday night prior to the Sunday, and we thought it was perfect, but three days is fine.

Purchase a piece of fish (about 1kg of salmon or ocean trout), then mix equal amounts of sugar and rock salt (about 500g each), with some crushed garlic cloves some fresh dill and lemon (or lime) juice. Place half of the mix underneath the fish in a big glass Pyrex baking dish, cover the fish with the rest and pour over about 75ml of vodka (or gin or vermouth). Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge with something heavy on top (cans or full bottles of tonic water). Half way through your curing turn the fish over and return to the fridge. We serve it with fresh rye bread and yoghurt cheese. If you would like to try the yoghurt cheese place  1kg of Greek yoghurt in a colander lined with muslin. Mix in a teaspoon of salt and leave to drain overnight in the fridge.

On the day, wash off the curing mix from the fish under the tap. Pat dry with paper towel. Check for any bones (they are easier to remove once the fish is firm and cured) and slice as thinly as you can. We serve it on a bed of dill (or fennel). Mix some horseradish (fresh or from a jar) into the yoghurt, slice your bread and enjoy.

Hut Christmas 2013 - wrapping done

Oh I start off keenly. I buy my wrapping, ribbons and tags in bulk from the Wrapping Paper Company (www.wrapco.com.au), choose a colour scheme and run with it! Out come my Kikki.K reindeer stamps and the tag production line starts. 

This year I went with silver kraft paper, black and white reindeer themed belliband, and red ribbons, twine and tags.

It starts off fun. I carefully fold the edges into crisp lines. Tie perfect bows. But after awhile as the pile to wrap seems to grow rather than decrease, I get a little over it! Especially when the sticky tape doesn't stick to the silver paper.

But it's done for another a year. I think it looks very smart under our tree.

Hut Christmas 2013- decorations are up!

Sorry about the break in Christmas posts. 

Finally on Tuesday I decorated the hut. It doesn't take long. The tree is all ready, we just pull it down out of the loft and plug it in. I added a few new decorations this year, some cute clay angels, another red reindeer, some red wooden hearts and of course the Swedish Santas.

The paper honeycomb decorations are quick to put up too.

A few Santa hats in the breezeway brighten up that room.

Both Maggie and Elisabeth are intrigued by the red baubles.

Hoping to get some baking done over the weekend.

Hut Christmas 2013 - cookbooks

I love Christmas baking. When I was a teenager I started making all my families requests after my school year finished: rum truffles, cherry hazelnut truffles, white Christmas, fudge, snow men meringues and mars bar slice. 

A bit more traditional now, we make puddings, fruit mince, fruit cake, Speculaas, gingerbread, shortbread, Turkish delight, cranberry and pecan cookies and chocolate fruit slice. 

With Rob now gluten free and our girls keeping us busy this year, I think we'll do a GF cake and maybe some almond biscuits. 

Do you have special treats you like to bake at Christmas?

My top four Christmas baking bibles. 

Hut Christmas 2013 - lilies

Our garden comes to the party just at the right time. Although I have quite a few white trumpet Christmas lilies, they are usually not ready until January. However, the bold colours of my Asiatic lilies more than make up for that. 

The red ones started a few days ago.

Do certain flowers remind you of Christmas? 

Hut Christmas 2013 - red theme

So if you have followed me on the blog for awhile you will know I am quite fond of the colour red when furnishing the hut.

It is no surprise therefore that my tree and room decoration theme is red and white. 

I put up the rainbow birthday decorations and got a little excited to see the tree up in the loft. Not long now. 

I was a bit busy today, and have only half written the next installment of the birth story. It is quite a long post. I'll catch up tomorrow. Oh and my 52 project post too! 

Hut Christmas 2013 - writing Christmas cards

I remember my mother manically scribbling Christmas cards as a child - a box of cards, stamps etc and a growing pile of envelopes ready to go on the dining room table. Her special Christmas address book always seemed to go missing just about late November causing much consternation and searching. 

Last year I was going to be so organised, I'd sent out the overseas cards and was getting around to writing the domestics when of course I got waylaid.

This year I'm nearly done. They should all go out early next week. After following many North American friends on Instagram I've come around to liking the Christmas mailer, a photo card. 

This year has been a little bit busy so we've done a simple version of a Christmas mailer, printing our favourite Christmas photos for me to scribble on and send out. 

Who knows next year I might get organised enough to do a real Christmas mailer. I know it probably isn't politically correct to send out paper cards, but I rarely post any other form of correspondence and there is something lovely about receiving exciting mail and seeing how everyone is and how they've grown up!

Do you send out cards, photos or a Christmas letter?

Hut Christmas 2013 - St Nicholas

I have written before about my families tradition of celebrating St Nicholas on December 6th.

Today I got to watch our daughters open their gift from St Nicholas for the first time.

Given that they don't need shoes yet, they don't actually have any, so they couldn't clean them and put them out last night. Also I didn't think lollies and chocolate were appropriate for tiny wee babies, so instead I bought some Christmas pyjamas (after Christmas last year!) for them to wear from now until Christmas.

You know what I think Maggie realised she'd been ripped off, her face here seems to express some disappointment with her gift! Next year I might add some fruit to their goodies. Elisabeth was quite impressed with the box they came in.

Happy St Nicholas day to you!

Hut Christmas 2013 - the Christmas photo

Usually our poor German Shepherd Dogs, Nigella and Claudia, are forced to wear reindeer antlers or a Santa hat and endure a Christmas photo shoot. 

This year we had the girls and a whole new level of difficulty, trying to get them both to smile! 

Our initial attempt wasn't great. It was a hot evening, they were hungry and I dressed them in red tutus with tights. They were particularly displeased about the Santa hats.

I'll share a few of the first attempt. We did follow up with another session the next morning in more casual attire and it was a bit more successful.