Christmas 2019

I always like to write about what we did for Christmas each year because it creates a record of it for the future. Can you remember where you were for Christmas in 2016? Who were you with? What did you eat? It’s amazing how quickly we forget.

For Christmas 2019 we were at our home in Aberdeen and were joined with a good friend and her son who came for lunch. I made Jamie Oliver’s Best-ever cranberry and pistachio nut roast as I do every year but without the cheese and egg.

For the only time all year, we also had a dead animal on our table: salmon. I let the kids have salmon once a year at Christmas only but for all the adults it was an entirely vegan Christmas. This year I also made a delicious vegan gravy from lentils. I followed a recipe from Isa Does It – Good Gravy Bowl – but modified it slightly by adding mushrooms.

Something different about this year is that Daniel made a dish. He’s been learning to cook at school in home economics and one dish he took a particular liking to is spicy fried rice which he made for us all on Christmas day. Here he is preparing it.

Here are the roast veggies about to go in the oven. The wonky parsnips from my allotment were delicious.

Our spread.

The hungry hoard.

After lunch, we went for a walk in Duthie Park.

There are patches of ice on the surface of the pond.

In the early evening, we played Trivial Pursuit and Charades. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. I hope yours was good too and a big thank you to everyone who chose not to put a dead animal on their plates this Christmas.

The Queen’s message was good this year. It’s significant and encouraging to see her praise young people for their efforts in tackling the problem of climate change.

“The challenges many people face today may be different to those once faced by my generation, but I have been struck by how new generations have brought a similar sense of purpose to issues such as protecting our environment and our climate.”

Now that Christmas is over it’s now time for me to diet. A couple of days ago I discovered that a dress I had bought 5 years ago has shrunk while hanging in my wardrobe and I can no longer zip it up. All my life I have been able to eat anything I want and never worry about weight gain but it looks like that is no longer the case. I blame Ben and Jerry’s vegan peanut butter ice-cream. It used to be that vegans were skinny because there was no such thing as vegan junk food. Now everything disgustingly unhealthy comes in a vegan version and so we’re no longer safe. My goal is to lose the layer of subcutaneous seal-like blubber my body has deposited around my middle so that I can zip this dress up again. I will still have my daily dose of chocolate for medicinal purposes. Wish me luck!!