Christmas Day hits and misses

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

a surprising hit- we got a funny jelly bean roulette game where you spin the spinner and you don’t know if you will get a good or horrible flavour. The kids loved it and it cost about £2.

The turkey was a hit - cooked at 120 for 7 hours- just a half crown- came out lovely and moist.

my son said it was the best Christmas Day he has had -he is 9- said he loved the turkey. Mainly very happy with his small presents.

the wine - I bought some nice sparkling wine from a local vineyard and it was very nice.

we watched home alone - Home alone 1 and 2, and Bridget Jones. Plus the snowman.

come and tell us what was a hit and what was a miss.

DDs have had that jellybean roulette before and I agree.... huge hit.

This year's surprise has been DD2's potion making kit. I bought it from Amazon for about £6 and both DDs have been occupied for the last hour making up and labelling bottles of "magic potions."

I think the miss was the wine but not a big disaster. I spent more than I usually would on a bottle of wine for Christmas lunch (think £20 rather than £9). It came recommended and although it was perfectly nice I don't think it was markedly nicer than my usual choice of wine.

Just goes to show spending more doesn't automatically mean better.

We forgot to get a game so my DD recommend we try garticphone.com - basically a bit like a phone version of Pictionary but a bit more to it. We had a lot of fun with it.

Another hit that DH reminded me - we bought crackers from Home Bargains 2 packs for £10. They seems to have the same items in that John Lewis were selling and they were selling for £39. bargain!

Me beef wellington was an absolute triumph!

I tried a slow cooker braised red cabbage recipe and it was delicious.
Miss...like someone else said, i somebody £17 on a red wine, recommended by an expert and was no better than my usual 'fancy' £10 bottle

We got some laser guns (think laser tag) a set of 4 for our 8 year old son.
it’s beaten the iPad and Lego as his favourite gift (this is the child who has a Lego room)

The hits: The turkey breast joint I bought from Aldi, was a bit nervous about it but it was absolutely lovely. The Wagyu roast potatoes too, I'm glad I went really early on Monday to get them. All the leftover will be bubble and squeak with cold turkey, gammon and pigs in blankets later today.

The company, just the two of us, my cousin came over.

£150 worth of gift vouchers including one for the garden, I can't wait to spend that one.

All the texts and Whatsapp messages from my friends and some family who don't live nearby.

Misses: Just the one, I forgot to do the Yorkshire Puddings. Doh! 😆

Hit- DD loves the swimming doll I got her (a version of baby Annabell that you wind up and it does the front crawl in the bath 😂)

Miss- we got some truly dull crackers from Waitrose. The ‘gifts’ were rubbish and cheap.

Ooh what's the red cabbage recipe please? I got one as delivery sub for a white one, but never had red before so don't know what to do with it.

Miss- my roast potatoes. I over did them in the par boiling process, so they went a bit mushy. My family had arrived so I think I got distracted 😔They roasted ok, but stuck to the baking tray a bit. I usually make lovely roast potatoes, so I was disappointed. Despite that everyone was saying they were nice. Luckily I had made a camembert mash, so we has other potatoes.

Second miss- dc 2 ate too much chocolate and had me up at 3 this morning as he was sick. Luckily only the once and he is fine today!

Hit-dc loved their presents, and were really well behaved. No arguing. We had a great day and everything went to plan, all my family seemed to have a great day. Now I need to get up and prepare for round 2. 12 people to host today.

No misses, all hits.

The food was great, DH is an excellent cook. We ate too much but not too too much.

The presents hit the mark. Absolutely no duffs.

All being well, next Christmas will be different as both DDs are pregnant. It was nice to enjoy the last 'grown up' Christmas.

Tesco finest Jeweled Christmas cake was a bust - rated number one by Good Housekeeping but it tastes weird. Turkey (local butchers) was a hit - my DD cooked the dinner and it was moist. Her roasties were the best I’ve ever had - really dud a syllable job.
We have been watching Christmas movies since she’s been back from uni so it was Die Hard 2 and 3 ( 3 is not a Christmas movie).

can you link to the potion making kit please (am starting list for next year)

Ooh where is the jellybean roulette from please? I think that would go down well at our New Year shindig!

3 yr old - a set of 100 tiny little dinosaur colour/sorting figures bought from his sibling from the tik tok shop. and bubble wrap 😜
All the food And games were a hit.
everything me and DH gave each other.
everything really was a hit.

my new trainers which I picked and which I had sent link to DH with size - just asked him to surprise with colour because I couldn’t decide - well they are too big lol. Not really a miss because I love them and can exchange them but does mean I need kid size so he might even get some money back! ❤️ but that’s all I could think of as day was perfect I just need to be a little more patient for my super comfy trainers ❤️❤️❤️❤️

It's this one although it's currently a lot more than I paid for it earlier in the year so it may be worth putting on a CamelCamelCamel alert to see if it drops again in price. But it's really sweet and the "potions" are mainly food colouring, baking soda and citric acid with feathers, mini crystals etc so pretty safe for little ones as long as they can be trusted not to drink their creations 🤣. DDs are 8 and 6 and have loved it.

https://amzn.eu/d/4kvSSwU

Marks and Spencer Chateaubriand was an amazing hit instead of turkey. It was so soft and tender and only took 40 mins to cook. My annual Jamie Oliver Jerk ham was a hit with my permanently unimpressed teen who said it was 'fire'.

Really lovely Christmas here and so pleased as we reined things in quite a lot compared with previous years. We decided not to host or be hosted as always end up spending more than we would otherwise; kids budgets were limited to £150 including stockings so they had fewer but more selective gifts; DH and I only did token gifts to each other etc.

Hits
DS(17) - delighted with his aftershave (JPG - Le Male)…reckons it’s the nicest he’s ever had!
DD(13) - says she’s had the most perfect gifts ever. Her reaction to the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk set was amazing (total surprise…most other bits she’d asked for)
DD(7) - adores her jumbo Care Bear plush and Jellycat elf!

Lunch was mostly fabulous (turkey was slightly dry but not untasty). Ham cooked in Coca Cola in slow cooker was superb. Wine was great.

Company was wonderful - was slightly concerned it would feel like any other day with it being just the 5 of us, but everyone was in a great mood, we had a lovely walk, sun shining, kids got on well, played games, watched film. Just lovely.

Misses
Turkey was a hit on the dry side but still tasty.

Yule log - I did the Delia recipe this year and much much prefer Nigella’s. The ganache topping was much too rich!

That’s it!

Hopeyou dont mind me asking but exactly what potion kits werethey?

*Turkey was a bit on the dry side, not hit!

Sorry potions kit already listed.

Surprise hit was the fiber optic battery lamp that autistic DD has attached herself to and has carried around all yesterday and today. She will put it down and run her hand over the fiber optic then grab a handful, pick it up and wander around. However its broke already as the battery wiring has come loose (because it not meant to be carried around by the light bits).

It was sort of a last minute add on and I was debating between it and a lava lamp (although I dont think that would survive better either).

Now we have to figure out how to fix it.

Hits were a pool table, our boys are 13 and 10 and it was a surprise gift, however everyone from the kids up to grandparents played and it was a great leveller. Really good.

films- we watched the first two Jurassic parks 23/24th and they were a great hit.

we loved the ice skating and uv mini golf at three counties, definitely would do that again.

Everything went pretty well. Some of the hits:

• Dh's sausage meat stuffing with leeks, cranberries and chestnuts was delicious

• Niwaki garden tools for me. They're so beautiful 😍

• a really silly little game that I put in ds2's stocking that was about £2 from Sainsburys, where you have to make lists, eg list all the Harry Potter books or all the signs of the zodiac. It's kept us all amused for ages, including the grandparents.

• Herd Mentality - again, a good game for all ages

• rewatching the Gavin and Stacey finale in PJs with a Baileys, just the 4 of us last night when all the olds had gone home to bed.

• All. The. Cheese.

Hiya it was this one. I halved recipe and plenty for x 4

Braised Red Cabbage {with Apple} https://share.google/KMoETKZhDWYIjdhlM