Musings // Christmas Round One 2018

Merry Christmas everyone!!!
I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting for this break for ages! A time for family, friends, tasty food and drink and no work 😊 The work laptop and phone are turned off for the next week and a half!
Like most it gets to this time of year and I just want to wind down, chill and not do much! Right now all 7 of us are cosied up in the living room watching Christmas movies – the perfect way to end the day!
So the plan for Christmas? After a lovely chilled weekend at home we made our way down to my parents at their new place in Bray yesterday (Christmas Eve) and we’re here until Boxing Day. 
We’re then going to make our way up to the hubby’s parents for Christmas Round 2 until Friday 🌲
Then we’ve got 4 days of chilling at home before starting back at work and one hell of a busy season… i should say year really! We’ve booked into Simpsons on Saturday and I’m so looking forward to it. Instead of presents the hubby and I like to go for a special meal/ do something. This year its Simpsons in Birmingham… another Michelin star restaurant to tick off the list 😊

My parent’s house had been kitted out full to the brim with Christmas decorations…

You definitely have ‘The Holiday’ vibes in this cottage in Bray… it’s gorgeous!
My little brother made the most delicious gingerbread for us all which we devoured…
We started the day after a nice lie in until 9 then wondered downstairs to make tea and open presents. We’d been to mass on Christmas Eve so we could have a lie in! 
My family know me well… I got a couple bottles of gin which I’m looking forward to tucking into.
I love this Balham print one of my brothers got my dad…
After some very yummy scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on toast we helped my dad get his new record player hooked up and playing vinyls. 
It was then a joint effort to get everything on the table for 3pm… in the midst of getting it all ready I forgot to take a picture of it all but here’s my brother’s plate filled to the brim!
It was delish! Everything was very yummy but those parsnips were to die for! Mum had cooked them in honey and mustard and they had caramelised and were oh so good….
This year the hubby and I were in charge of pudding. If you’ve been following me on instagram I’ve been posting about how we made the chocolate and salted caramel tart. I’ll do a separate post on the recipe as it was a hit! It was a Waitrose recipe and fairly easy to follow. It’s the first time we’d made caramel and it was very tasty! We’ll definitely be making it again so I’ll try and take a better picture then.
Since then we’ve been chilling eating crisps with dip, chocolate and more chocolate. I’ve spent a fair few hours chilling by the fire and am now cosied up in an arm chair watching Die Hard – definitely a Christmas movie in our household! (We’ve already watched Home Alone 2 – another Christmas classic 😊)
So here’s to having a relaxing and chilled day with family and friends. I hope you got everything you were hoping for… for me it was a day filled with yummy food amongst family.
Do you think Die Hard is a Christmas classic?
What’s your all time favourite Christmas movie?
Until next time,
Cathers xx
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