Merry Christmas from the Cakes!

I hope today has been a day full of great food, much merriment and not too much stress or bellyache (though a small amount seems only right!) for you all. It certainly was for me - just the right amount of bellyache!

I finished up at work on Thursday and flew to Christchurch, and spent yesterday preparing for our Christmas dinner with my sister. We had a very home-grown Christmas - my Dad grew a lot of the vegies (and the piles of glorious cherries) which appeared on our dinner table, and the lamb came from his aunt; he and my brother-in-law got the honoured job of killing and hanging it on the 23rd, then butchering it yesterday.

We set the table all pretty - we went from this: 

To this: 

We used some ivy to decorate the table, along with cherries, peas in the pod, and homemade rosemary and parmesan breadsticks so that people could nibble while we put the finishing touches on dinner. We used some of Grandma's lovely depression glass to hold these - they're so lovely and worked a treat in amongst the trailing ivy. My sister's recent trip to Israel yielded a lovely wooden nativity scene which we set up on the mantlepiece in the dining room to complete the scene.

Our dinner included some things I've given recipes for, and some which might show up at some later date. We had some cute little canapes - beetroot hummus and goat cheese tartlets, and caprese salad skewers:

The lamb was beautiful - a combination, I think, of the super-fresh, tender meat, and a wonderfully buttery walnut and almond stuffing which fed deliciousness into the meat. Our roast consisted of both flaps from the lamb and the eye fillet, butterflied, and then all three laid together so we had a substantial rolled roast. The stuffing also gave the gravy a delicious nutty flavour, which was a bit different.

And of course the best part was being able to share a nice long leisurely lunch with the whole Cake family: 

Clockwise from front left - Mr Cake, Dad Cake, Mum Cake, Grandpa Cake, Grandma Cake, Baby Sister Cake, Sister Cake (with in-utero Macgyver Cake), Brother-in-law Cake and Uncle Cake! Oh, and if you look really carefully there's a portrait in the background of my sisters and I when I was about eight - I have the frizziest hair in the world in that photo, thanks to my excellent childhood strategy of putting about eight braids into my hair while it was wet and then sleeping on it to make my hair "curly." Stunning... Fortunately my idea of ways to make my hair look good (and also ways-to-get-a-decent-night's-sleep!) have progressed over the years. ;-)

Most notable present: our brand new his'n'hers aprons. Check them out:

Aren't they awesome? Thanks to Aunty Cake for making them for us. I'm sure they'll be covered in cakey smudges in no time!

So I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas - what did you do? And what was your most fabulous foodie pressie?