Festive Feasting

Christmas is all over for another year, it always passes in the blink of an eye but it's definitely my favourite time of the year. Christmas is always about family, friends and food and that is definitely an understatement at our house! Here is a quick post documenting the last few days!

Christmas eve is when the feasting begins which begins in a typically Chinese style. After my parents finish work they rush home and we start preparing the food for Hot Pot. This includes our annual dumpling making session and cutting up those century eggs which smell foul but taste awesome in hot pot. 

My family are all in the catering trade so my relatives and family friends all arrive about midnight after work and we gather for our feast! We always have two tables for hot pot, one for the adults and one for the 'kids' even though us 'kids' are now well into our 20s! All sorts of foods go into the simmering hot pot including Chinese vegetables, salmon, beef, fish balls, beancurd skins, lamb, scallops and prawns. All dipped into my dad's 'famous' satay sauce.

We tend to stay up until at least 4 am which is kind of crazy. Before long, we've only had a couple of hours sleep and we're up again, this time getting ready and preparing our Christmas Dinner! Oh and of course a cheeky chocolate from our advent calendars.

Our festive tea towels come out and before long, my parents, my sisters, uncle and more cousins are all sitting down at the table, ready to dig into our turkey with all the trimmings!
This is definitely the biggest meal of the day! After dinner, we usually sit in the living room, where adults fall asleep and the kids play with their new toys. This year we played on the Wii dance party and guitar hero. I have zero coordination so I am truly awful at both! While most people settle down for a small dinner on the evening, we do the complete opposite. About 4 hours later, we hop into the car and travel over to our grandmothers. We are greeted with even more cousins, aunts and uncles and we tuck into her epic traditional Chinese dinner. Lobster, suckling pig, steamed Turbot fish, Roast chicken were all on the menu. My grandmother's house is always chaotic at this time of the year with so many younger cousins running around!

Boxing day is always the most chilled out day. Turkey toasties and tea are our snacks in the day and then we usually pop into town to have a look at the sales. This year I came home empty handed but at least my stomach was nice and full! After the shopping, we went to our favourite Cantonese restaurant and we feasted on more yummy food (crab, prawns, fish etc) with my parent's friends.

Despite the feasting being well and truly over (phew!), our house is still full of festive treats! This includes a huge crate of clementines that my mum bought from the market and plenty of Baileys and Chocolates. We'll be eating these for days on end!  

Hope you all had a wonderful few days! Now back to reality...