My big brother & sister came home today, which means one thing… Christmas is back!
Once again the house was filled with laughter, shouting, barking and secrets…
The littles tore open pressies while we drank champagne & looked on.
Custard was pretty flat out all day.
After a tiring morning of drawing, twirling and playing with the girls, it was time for lunch. Mum served up one of her world famous venison pies, mash, peas and my personal favourite; carrot & parsnip mush.
The buttery, crispy pastry was the perfect blotting paper for rich venison gravy and we were left with a little too much mashed potato. A game of “who can fit the most mash in at once” was inevitable.
Phoebe won (with a little help).
For pudding we had slices of mum’s bakewell tart & big slabs of slutty brownies all drizzled in cream, before moving on to port, liqueurs & drinking games.
Things started out fairly civilly with quizes & word games but decended rapidly once Ibble-Dibble was suggested. It’s an old fashioned drinking game and you get a ‘dibble’ and a shot of homemade damson gin every time you get the game wrong… which results in a wobbly family with dibbly faces.
Having demolished 6 bottles (yes 6!) of last summer’s damson gin, we decided we should probably retire to the fire.
Geoff is my brother from another mother. Our mums were best friends before any of us were born and I’ve grown up with him as an extra, big (Irish) brother. With enough gin you can coax out his guitar and persuade him to sing… which is just what we did.
I recorded a couple of his songs for you. They’re both very different so make sure you listen all the way through.
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His mum, Wishy, passed away last Winter but sitting around him as he sang that last song, I swear she was right there with us.
