Advent Blog – Day 14

Preparing for a Seige

I remember it was very different when I was young – my Mum and my Auntie used to take it in turns to host Christmas so we were two families plus Grandparents – 11 of us in total for many years.

My Mum used to order a huge sack of potatoes (literally a sack, probably 2 foot tall). We had bags of other veg, a big piece of ham for boxing day and gallons of milk in a fridge in the garage.

All about Pork Pies

Even though, there were some items that were only bought at the last minute – my poor brother used to get sent down into the town centre on Christmas Eve morning. His task was to be outside Marks & Spencer for when it opened at 8:00am so he could buy a pork pie for boxing day. What a palaver! I’m not really sure anyone ever loved the pork pie to that extent.

My solution is to keep it simple & delegate

The meals I chose are more about being easy and easy than being the fanciest food. It isn’t always easy finding dishes that meet everyone’s taste but overall I manage.

I used to try and prepare a lot of things in advance but I had trouble with the freezer being too full and it didn’t seem to save me much time. When people are here they are happy to help.

I also try to include some meals that other people can so we share the workload. My mother in-law will be doing Cottage Pie and my Father will cook his bolognese sauce.

All I need to do now is place the order for my parents to buy the meat at the farm shop, then plan how to delegate the tasks when everyone is here.