Christmas

Christmas came early to Hill House this year, with the unexpected arrival from Canada of Emily, Andre, Nate and Cate on Friday afternoon.

It wasn't really a surprise arrival. We knew they were coming. But it was unexpected. Flights were very expensive and they couldn't really justify spending thousands of dollars to come just for a couple of weeks. So we weren't expecting them. But Emily kept an eye on the flight websites and found a good deal, which she pounced on. And three or so weeks later, here they all were

On many Christmas Eves, I host an evening meal at my place. It wasn't convenient for Emily and Andre to come to me (10 month old babies tend to go to bed earlier than I do), so I took food up to Hill House and cooked there. I bough another pre-cooked turkey crown and made another turkey in a mushroom cream  sauce, with roast potatoes and lots of green veg, followed by summer fruit, ginger biscuits and lemon yoyos.

Christmas morning:

Lindsey, Ian and I went to Daylesford for Christmas lunch, at the Lake House. Ian had booked a holiday house just two doors away from the Lake House, so no one would have to drive after lunch.

Lunch was a tasting menu of delicious morsels. I had my very own, nut-free menu, more or less the same as the general Christmas lunch menu

My white Christmas:

Lunchtime view:

And lunch:

Starter morsels

Marron tails:

Cherry and duck parfaits with brioche:

Ian and I had the snapper for our main:

Lindsey had the turkey:

Lindsey had the Christmas pudding, which I couldn't have

Ian and I had the mango and passionfruit pavlova:

No mince pie for me

They made me a chocolate ganache instead

And the wine flowed alongside all the tasty morsels

Emily, Andre and the babies also came to Daylesford, although they didn't stay in our very cute AirBnB. They rented a different one, just around the corner. It was a glorious evening and we all ate dinner outside in the garden of our AirBnB. You might think we wouldn't have needed dinner, after such a fancy lunch. But Emily and Andre hadn't been to The Lake House and were hungry, and the lunch plates were small and well spaced so there was room for fillet steak and salad and other delicious things in the evening. 

Playing on a sprinkler mat

Boxing Day morning:

We all met at the Frangos Hotel for breakfast and then made our way back to Ballarat. It was an excellent Christmas.

New friend for Christmas

It was hot and windy across Victoria on Boxing Day and the fire danger was very high. There is a very large bush fire burning in the Grampians. Fortunately for us, Ballarat and its environs escaped a fire and a cool change has come through. Even more fortunately, the strong, gusty wind has dropped and all is calm again. I didn't mind the heat so much. I didn't like the wind though. Lots of things got blown around although mercifully none of the trees around my place blew over and no large branches fell. Just lots of sticks and leaves