Whole Lotta Love with Christmas Dinner

Hope you all have had a lovely Christmas.  As usual we all ate too much and so as everybody else!
Here are what we have all had for Christmas....

My older daughter Emily and her boyfriend Craig decided to do their own Christmas dinner quietly at their house on Christmas Eve.  Emily prepared peas and ham soup to start with and turkey with all trimmings for Craig. They were so full having had all these that they did not have any puddings afterwards however they had a nice and relaxing Christmas dinner just two of them. Ahhh, whole lotta love!

The next day, Craig went to his mum and dad's for Christmas dinner while Emily and Maria went to their father's for Christmas dinner this year as Emily was in Japan with us last year for Christmas. They take turns visiting their parents for Christmas and New Year.

By the way, Christmas in Japan is nothing like here as people basically celebrate it more commercially - good excuse for spending money on sales. Some couple may go to nice restaurants, usually French, for Christmas dinner for a romantic dinner for two but anything merely resembling to Christmas dinner experience over there would be to go to KFC to buy chicken drumsticks, so you see a long queue of people outside of KFCs in Japan on Christmas eve. People also buy Christmas cakes leading up to 25th. Many many years ago it was quite normal for females in Japan to get married in early 20s. Those who were still single beyond 25 years old were cruelly nicknamed Left Over Christmas Cakes as people do not buy Christmas cakes after 25th December for passing shelf-life, thus referring single females over 25th to such cruel nicknames as no one wants to marry them. Obviously this is no longer the case and it is probably very rare now that females getting married in early 20s.

Sorry, digressed as usual. Back to the Christmas dinner. Emily and Maria went to their father's for Christmas dinner.  They had choices of prawn cocktail or Christmas tree shape-pate with toasts as starter.

They then had turkey with all trimmings. I am not a meat eater but it looks delicious, I must say...
They also had chocolate cake with cream and ice cream. Again, there's whole lotta love going into the meal.

In the meantime, my husband and I went to his sister's house for Christmas dinner as we normally do every year.  His sister, Mary, made home-made mackerel pate with melba toast.  She add butter to the pate to make it 'pate-like' consistency. Her tip was also to use older breads to turn into melba toast which I found a fantastic idea. We then had fish pie while others had turkey.  However my highlight of the day was Sicilian Cassata cake!

Cassata Siciliana

Cassata is traditional Sicilian sponge cake, layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel and vanilla cream and covered with green marzipan and decorated with candied fruit such as cherries and citrus fruits. My husband and I went back to Sicily this year for holiday and Mary knows we love Italy so much that she went to this Sicilian bakery in Edinburgh and got this cassata specially for Christmas. When Mary told the owner of the shop that she and her husband had been to Sicily and how much they loved it there, the owner explained that Sicilians eat this for special occasions but also for Christmas and started talking in Italian (or Sicilian) to her...  I love that!  I must get the address of that bakery off Mary and one day I shall visit that bakery!  We never got to eat cassata while we were in Sicily so this was a special delight for me. To be honest I am not much of a fan of marzipan although I do love almonds and this is a very sweet cake but I really enjoyed it!  It also felt like Cassata has brought a Sicilian sunshine to this grey British weather for Christmas and all these colourful decorations are so appropriate for the occasion! Again, lots of love and happiness going into the Christmas dinner!

Emily's friend' Jennifer has also sent me photos of her Christmas dinner. She and her family went to Glenskirlie House ( http://www.glenskirliehouse.com/GlenskirlieHouseRestaurant.aspx) in Banknock for a lovely Christmas dinner.
They had smoked salmon and pate (note for Christmas tree shape melba toast!) for starters, followed by sorbet to cleanse their palate for the main course.

    

They then had turkey and venison for main courses! I don't eat meat but the venison looks impressive!

For desserts there were fantastic choices -  they had poached pear with brownie, trio of ice cream, cheese cake and fruit jelly. They all look pretty and delicious! I personally want to try that poached pear!

Everything looks very yummy and beautifully presented. I am sure Jennifer and her family had a fantastic Chirstmas dinner with lots of happiness and love on Christmas Day.

I know it's only dinner but you see, everyone celebrated their Christmas different ways and just looking at these photos makes me feel really happy, thinking that everyone really enjoyed themselves with loved ones, eating wonderful meals together. That's whole lotta love!

Merry Christmas and that's all, forks!