The Christmas Old and New

And with just the offical 12 Days of Christmas left to go till the big day itself, here's a little snapshot into my Christmassy day.

Let's start with the delights of Christmas 'new' – with Mr Hawkes for once being awfully on trend (just watched a BBC News report about how this very item is all the rage this winter season, daaaarling). Have just been sent a delightful photo of Hawksey sporting his new Christmas jumper in the office.

Not sure which one in the photo has the bigger red nose, but my what a proud moment in the Hawkes household to see how seasonally well a mere £12.99 on Amazon can be invested… And to get an early inkling of how lovely my husband is bound to also look on Xmas Day itself…

And on to the other one – a little touch of Christmas 'old'. Every year at Christmas my Mum used to make what she'd call her Christmas chestnut stuffing. Not balls of sausagey sage as we know it, but a monster cauldron of mince, onion, chestnut, bacon, red wine, ginger, beef stock, dark soy sauce, garlic, herbs – and pretty much much anything else lurking in the family fridge, once she'd wiped the worst of the inevitable 1970/80s bacterial growths off it. 

About 10 years – maybe even 12-15 years – ago I had a growing suspicion that Mum's memory might not last and that this one tradition of my childhood would one day disappear. So I got mum to write down the recipe. Huffing and puffing a bit, as it was all in her head, she finally did so. And I've had this little scrap of important paper tucked away for a decade or so in the kitchen drawer.

I finally decided to get it out and make it this year, as we've invited some of Mum's elderly church chums round for Christmas lunch this Sunday, and I thought it might be a nice touch to bring out the old for them, with hopefully enough leftover for my brother & sister in law on Boxing Day (yes, I am going to freeze their bit!). Silviya is off today for a long weekend as it's her birthday, so I told Mum as I was making her breakfast that I was heading off to Waitrose in search of a mountain of chestnuts and the rest, to make her special stuffing.

Pretty much as expected, sadly, Mum's face was a blank. She didnt recognise the recipe page that I'd kept, and had no idea that it's written in her writing, with her name signed with a flourish at the bottom. And when I said 'but it's the one you used to make every year' she didn't look too certain either. So maybe it's more about me trying to bring just a little a bit of the 'old Mum' back for Christmas, when she's not really quite so much herself these days.

If you're dropping in here before Xmas, I'll warm up a bit for you – despite me being a very average cook, it's a damn good recipe and a really good taste of childhood Christmas. Aaaah.

x