Hello, I hope you had a lovely Christmas! In a very 2020 way, ours was a bit different to what we'd originally planned. We were due to host my family on Boxing Day - 12 people altogether - but the latest outbreak in Sydney meant no one could visit without quarantining on arrival.
At first I was pretty accepting of it all (maybe this year had taught me to roll with the punches?) but I was definitely bummed as Christmas drew nearer. But lining up to collect our annual ham, a big box of presents arriving from my brother in Sydney and doing the Christmas market run helped make it festive again.
Christmas Day was just the two of us. I made Julia Ostro's spiced maple glazed ham with peach relish (so good!!), these excellent dinner rolls (worth the trip to the shops to buy the weird ingredients) and a Hetty McKinnon potato salad.
Then on Boxing Day, my sister and her family came round for leftovers with a cold soba noodle salad, a massive cheese platter my sister made and my first ever pavlova. We video chatted with the rest of the family in Sydney and played a family quiz my youngest brother made (I came second and won a prize!).
And now we're settling into a lovely routine of morning bike rides and coffee, making up plates of leftovers for lunch and dinner before watching and re-watching movies. We're making our way through the five Small Axe films on Binge and loving them (the playlist too!). I'm reading Bryan Washington's novel Memorial, which may be my favourite book of the year. Podcast-wise, The Year in Good News from The Daily is really nice. I liked Mari Andrew's list of nice things to do during this particular Christmas. And I'm listening to The Avalanches new album, We Will Always Love You.
Tony and I keep talking about the smoke haze that covered the city last Christmas. Even though this year has been hard in its own way, being able to see blue sky and go outside for walks and rides while on holidays feels special.
X
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