Feliz Navidad!

 

Feliz Navidad! For us, still on a high from our trip to Tenerife, Xmas Day had a Spanish flavour. I wore a vintage navy blue hand-embroidered cotton maxi dress I bought from the charity shop we'd stumbled upon in Puerto de la Cruz (€8!) and enjoyed a glass of chilled Manzanilla whilst putting the finishing touches to the dinner table.

Lord Jon wore one of his presents from me, a Wrangler denim shirt. Behind him is our concession to Xmas, our Ian Snow globe baubles strung on a log rescued from the wood pile and a 99p handmade woollen deer I felt sorry for in the charity shop, the lights are up all year round.

The dinner table is covered with an ancient purple velvet curtain, the centrepiece is a vintage wooden bobbin salvaged from an Indian textile factory and the Santa boxes came from The Works (£2 for four) which I filled with toy cars, jet balls and sweets. I made my own paper crowns from old wrapping paper and hand wrote terrible Xmas jokes on gift tags. 

What does a frog wear on his feet? Open Toad Sandals!

Rather than going out for an Indian, the Dead Relatives Society (which this year consisted of Tony, my brother, Marcus & us) dined chez Kinky. 

The lads started with melon drizzled with balsamic vinegar accompanied by Iberian ham (I just had the melon). I spotted these vintage Denby Arabesque plates in the clearance charity shop priced up at £1 last week (I've got the matching coffee service, which was Mum & Dad's wedding present in 1966).

The carnivores had Spanish chicken (recipe HERE) served with patatas bravas, padron peppers, carrots baked with sesame seeds, honey and wholegrain mustard and shredded, roasted Brussels sprouts with chilli flakes and vegan bacon bits. I swapped the chicken for ratatouille (made using a Katy Beskow recipe). In keeping with the Spanish theme, Tony donated a case of Tempranillo, a gift from a supplier, which Jon and I made short work of. 

After we'd demolished dinner we spent the rest of the day playing a hilarious booze-fuelled game of Trivial Pursuit. Tony and Marcus bade us farewell at 8pm leaving us to doze in front of the TV with a glass of Limoncello.

It was William's first Xmas as a house cat and he behaved impeccably, well, apart from leaping on the table and trying to wrestle Tony's Iberian ham off him. He was spoiled with gifts, a bagful of catnip toys, feathers on sticks and jangly balls, a cat tunnel and Dreamies galore.

 

We even treated him to a sparkly new collar from Cool Cat Collars (linking 'cos we love them!)

 

And it wasn't just William who was spoiled. Here's our gifts to each other and from Tony, Marcus, Liz & Al, Liz's mum Hazel, Liz & Adrian and lovely neighbours, the Aslam Family. 

Art and baking.

Food and drink galore.

Secondhand kitsch.

A bespoke hat and crochet sun top, Mdina glass bottle stopper and Snag tights (the best!)

A vintage Indian hand woven silk throw & a modern woven shirt, kitschy cushions, colours and scents.

 Lord Jon excelled himself with the jewellery buying (as if he didn't spoil me enough on my birthday) and the vintage Pluto tin in one of the previous collages was crammed with vintage Kuchi gems.

Here's three of the new old rings in situ.

Liz made me this amazing feather headband, I cannot wait for the festival season!

Xmas is very much a one day affair in our house. Each to their own but the thought of lolling about for a week in pyjamas guzzling chocolate makes me feel quite ill. 

Boxing Day kicked off with a Wii Fit workout and a brisk walk, we had noodles for lunch and a salad for tea. 

We were hoping to go on a National Trust adventure today (Wednesday) but the weather was atrocious. I got up at 6am, did my Wii Fit workout and went back to bed carrying two mugs of tea and William slung over my shoulder and read for an hour instead. It's been a pottering around type of day - hence the blog post. As you can see from the headdress, I've been playing around with my tin of tribal delights.

So far this week we've watched House of Gucci (Dec 23rd), Belfast (Xmas Eve) and A Haunting in Venice (Xmas Day). 

My favourite film by far was last night's, Saltburn. With some outstanding acting, a darkly comic plot, a banging Brit Pop soundtrack and the most spectacular cinematography, it's gone straight into my top three films of the year. Barry Keoghan was amazing in The Banshees of Inisherin but his performance as the unreliable narrator, Oliver Quick, left me speechless.  

I'm glad I stocked up on books, I'm already halfway through my third this week. At this rate I might make it to 100 by the end of the year.

Thanks so much for all your kind comments on my Winter Solstice post. I hope Xmas was everything you hoped for (and bearable for those of you dreading it). See you soon!