and a partridge in a pear tree.

i'm a bit behind, but here goes.

we decided to spend christmas just the two of us. we've had an enormous amount of travel this year, and with money short and limited mobility due to surgery six weeks earlier, we just wanted some time to be at home and be together. we are so glad we did! we realise that this probably won't happen very often and actually, sharing our first christmas together, just us, was such a special time.

to say this year's christmas was catagorized by food would be an understatement. we basically ate our way out of the house.

but shall we start at the beginning?

christmas morning was wonderful. we woke up and had our coffee in bed while we opened our stockings. santa was oh so good, bringing cute note cards, a 'keep calm' mug and a book i'm so glad to read - the meaning of marriage by tim keller - love it already. knew that i would!

christmas morning church is a tradition that we started last year, reasoning that with overseas family we might be frequently travelling during the period, but we'd always be able to find a local church. this year it was special to worship at our (new) home church and enjoy a church filled-to-the-brim with small children, oh so excited about christmas. we remarked that it was a fantastic way to remind ourselves of the reason for christmas - christ - and we hope to keep this tradition alive in our family!

we returned to begin the preparations for the feast and open our under-the-tree presents. it was a year of abundant blessings, our offerings were small, our hearts flung open, our bellies were FILLED.

i set to preparing the dinner that ended all dinners. and once it was all in the oven. we headed out for a walk.

prawns on a bed of winter greens with horseradish cream - i substituted prawns for scallops in the recipe, mainly because my fishmonger was all out on christmas eve, but we liked it so much it's getting a second chance at a birthday dinner in six weeks time!

king of his castle.

roast partridge, pheasant and guinea fowl - why go traditional when there's only two mouths? this was stunning and seemingly more appropriate and still an enormous amount of food!

the very best roast potatoes - use goose fat, it changes everything. and i'm not exaggerating at all.

for dessert we had lava cakes, i wasn't thrilled with them. partly they didn't end up as chocolate lava in the middle, partly the oven decided to stop working in the middle of them baking and partly we were just to filled with food to appreciate anything. lesson learned, in future, i'll go for a pre-cooked, light dessert!

the evening was topped off with watching the classic - national lampoon's christmas vacation, love it. and then suffering from a serious case of 'christmas-itis' we went for a midnight walk through our neighbourhood. it was so lovely to see houses lit up and trees in bay windows and the streets completely quiet, save our footsteps and the jingle bell on the collar of the cat that tried to follow us home.