Belated Seasons Greetings.

Where did the last week go? A week ago we were getting ready for our friends from Spain to arrive on Christmas eve,  and to get all the Christmas food preparation that could be done prepared so there would be no hassle over the festive period. More mince pies were made,

Simon was in charge of the cake from start to finish this year.

Christmas cake decorated, and duck liver pate' made,

The fireplace gets a Xmas makeover.

and the Christmas decorations done,

this is something that we would normally do on Christmas Eve, but we decided it would be too much hassle doing it the same day as out friends were arriving,

All ready for the festivities.

so the room got decorated a couple of days early.

A beautiful home made ginger cake from one of our appreciative customers.

We also had to make a final egg delivery to our customers, and to get the last few months rubbish down to the recycling depot. This is something that we only need to do three times a year, we do not have a refuge collection although we could, but we  produce very little waste and it would not warrant having a wheelie bin.  For the past two years we have only produced 180kg of waste per year. It's hard to know what the average amount is per person in Ireland as official reports give wildly varying figures,  ranging from 331 kg per person to 586kg per person, however what is not disputed is the fact that Ireland is the third highest producer of waste within the EU.

The cats had to have a full inspection.

Some of the things that we see dumped should have been taken to charity shops,

Misty decided this one was hers.

such as three perfectly good baskets which we rescued. One has become our Xmas decoration basket, far better than a cardboard box.
The festive period passed far too quickly, time just goes when you have good company.

All the food was declared a hit, our friends are big foodies,

100% home produced.

Christmas dinner was 100% home produced,  one of our own eight lb chickens, sprouts, parsnips and carrots straight from the garden,

The pudding was rich and black, just as a Xmas pudding should be.

followed by our homemade flaming Christmas pudding.
St. Stephens day ( Boxing day)we started with home made duck liver pate which went down very well,

Hubert Flanagan did us proud with this beautiful lump of beef.

followed by  a fantastic rib of  beef, 28 days aged, from one of our local Organic farms ( just six miles away, we try to keep our food local) this beef was from an Angus and was just about the best beef we have tasted. All this was finished off with (a very tipsy) Sherry Trifle, very much a grown up desert. The time with our friends went far too quickly, we look forward to their next visit, promised to us for this summer. Tomorrow we have friends coming for lunch. These are people who I met in blogging world, they come from New England in the US and are hoping to spend their retirement in Ireland. As one of them is vegetarian I have had to give some thought to a festive no meat menu, however we often have vegetarian food ourselves, in fact Simon was a vegetarian for many years before we met so it's not too much hardship for either of us.
We then have a few days to recuperate before heading over to friends for a New Years day lunch.
hoping you all had a Very Good Christmas, and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.