Christmas Sewing completed just in time

It was touch and go if I would get the Christmas sewing completed in time, before we went away in the caravan.  But of course I did, and I even found time to shorten a casual top I had purchased a couple of months ago.  I was making the grand-daughters a tote bag each.  Emma is a real horse fanatic so hers was done in horsey fabric.  Megan’s bag was made with black fabric printed with hats, bags, high heels and cocktails.

Two tote bags for Christmas

Anything to do with horses makes Emma happy.  She declared she is going to take it to work each day.  However, I’m not too sure what Megan felt about her bag, although she thanked me politely.  (If she doesn’t want it, perhaps I could take it back?)

Opening the presents elicited a lot of squealing from the two grand-daughters as they found things that they really, really wanted.  Megan is a keen cook and was thrilled with her little blow torch, just the thing to finish off a crème Brule, we were told.  So many presents were piled under the tree that it took quite some time to open them all.  Ours included a book each, (just what we wanted)  vouchers and a big haul of chocolates.  We don’t really need the choccies, do we, but no doubt they will get eaten.

Just what Megan wanted

We’ve been eating all day, and the day is not over yet.  Breakfast was hot croissants filled with freshly glazed ham and cheese.  And for lunch I had prepared our well loved chicken roll-ups.  This is a Jo Segar recipe and is simply sliced chicken breast rolled around a “boozy” soaked dried apricot, rolled around again with streaky bacon, and held together with several toothpicks.

Something I prepared earlier

With the rain coming down hard we decided to cook our special bacon wrapped chicken roll-ups in the kitchen instead of outside on the BBQ.  Robin took over this chore and stood diligently, turning the chicken pieces as they slowly browned.  The combination of bacon and chicken sizzling away smelt divine, yum, it was enough to make our mouths water!  These were served with green salad, potatoe salad, pasta salad, and kumara salad, washed down with sips of bubbly and grape-juice.  Dessert was Nicky’s speciality, a decadent home made chocolate cheesecake, piled high with strawberries and blueberries, and there was no space for Christmas Pudding and custard at all.  We will save that for another day.

Our Christmas Feast

The girls decorated Grand-dad’s beard