Family gatherings come thick and fast at this time of the year. Just a couple of weeks before Christmas we had a family get together in the park for Mr NQNs sisters baby blessing aka baby shower. Both women and men were invited.
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Being a hippy family means that things are much less formal than usual. The baby blessing was held on picnic rugs and accordions and violins were brought out to provide the music. I'm sure that my parents in their very non hippy ways might have muttered "My god are we related to gypsys?" They seemed a bit bewildered by it all.
Mr NQN's father Roger arrived a couple of hours later (on "Roger time") and he observed Amaya's friend with her 10 month old girl swathed in pink. "What's the little boys name?" he said completely not picking up on the colour cues. The baby girl's mother looked at him astonished.
In any case, that gathering was the calm before the storm. A few days before Christmas the entire Elliott family decided to implode. One by one they opted out of Christmas celebrations. What should have been a nice time with family became a seething hotbed of resentment, demands, disorganization and passive aggressive behaviour. One demanded one thing while another demanded another and neither would budge.
So we did what anyone at the end of their tether did, instead we celebrated with people that understood the genuine meaning of Christmas. Friends are like family, except you actually choose them. We had Queen Viv, her son Michael, Julie, Alistair and my parents. And Mr NQN's mother Tuulikki, perhaps befuddled and confused by her own family's behaviour decided to come along to our Christmas celebration.
It was with a nervous wait that I watched the weather. We had decided to go with a hot weather Christmas but of course the weather was hot one day and then cool the next. The food centrepiece would be a whole baked salmon accompanied by salads and pavlova. The salmon dish is called salmon tarator and it's a baked salmon covered with a garlic yogurt sauce, toasted walnuts and fresh herbs and not only is it a show stopper but it's really easy too.
And by Christmas miracle that morning everything was ready two hours early (which never happens, trust me ;)). I had saved time by doing a few things the night before (the pavlova, roasting the beetroot and cooking the barley and quinoa) and that morning I baked the salmon. It was an enormous specimen at 4.5 kilos and I couldn't even fit it in my oven. I had to cut the head and tail off (which only affirmed to me that I don't think I could murder anything) and set it off to bake while I made the garlic sauce and the herb topping.
With the car laid down with supplies, we drove to nearby Centennial Park where other groups of families had already staked out areas. We found a picnic spot and set up while Mr NQN went home to let our guests know that we had a little Christmas surprise for them - an outdoor Christmas! There were nine of us assembled around the table and we had a wonderful time talking about all things food and bizarre around the world.
Queen Viv told us a tale of how she had once caught an octopus and the ensuing battle to get the thing back into the water while trying to dislodge one of its many arms that had suctioned themselves on the boat. Alistair talked about how Julie had finally let him in the kitchen and over his cooking career he had made 100 pavlovas. Mr NQN and Michael talked about cycling and Tuulikki talked about monkeys while my parents laughed.
I prepared the pavlova just before serving as the birds that stalked nearby looked as though they could take us on. Alas the pavlova looks a bit rough and ready but it's the taste that counts right? The pavlova was followed by one of the things that I look forward to most during Christmas is my Dear Reader Matilda's Italian Christmas cookies! Every year I dance with happiness when these come in the mail. There was much laughter, affection and food - the way that Christmas should be.
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you want most in the world for Christmas?
Merry Christmas Dear Readers and I hope that you have a truly splendid and wonderful Christmas. Thank you for all of your support this year and thank you for reading!
Lots of Love,
Lorraine xxx
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