Crikey!!! 20 days to go!! Team effort required here please.

Hello everyone,

I've finally accepted that Christmas is actually going to happen. I don't know why it catches me out - it's always on the same date.

Anyway, I've got a relatively quiet but somewhat complicated Christmas ahead of me so could do with any suggestions for prepare ahead food or entertainment.

My son and daughter are both coming over in the morning which is lovely. My son may or may not be bringing his newish girlfriend so watch this space. My daughter is bringing her partner and my children have also invited a mutual friend of theirs who would otherwise be alone for Christmas day. My sister and her husband may turn up later in the day.

All quite manageable on the face of it.......However.......my son likes meat (excellent, we can have turkey).

My daughter is a vegan (ok, tiny turkey and nut roast)

The mutual friend only eats fish and apparently doesn't like vegetables (how old is he 10?)

My brother-in-law is allergic to nuts (eek!)

My sister is on a diet (she has been very successful at this *sigh* )

She and her husband don't celebrate Christmas so will be arriving after the present exchanging (actually, we have agreed only to do presents we have made this year and to make a small contribution to charity - this seems very altruistic but the truth is that it works out a whole lot cheaper.)

I, on the other hand, prefer not to eat meat but will eat it if it is on my plate, love vegetables, nuts and will have a go at basically anything else that I can consume. (I've always been called easy )

My daughter's boyfriend is a bit shy of family do's and my son's girlfriend doesn't know us.

I need A) Food ideas, easy to prepare

B) Silly games to play after a few medicinal whiskeys.

H.....E.......L.......P

Ps Any ideas for daft sing - along Christmas songs too. Alannah...don't you dare!!!! BM not invited.

Come on share. What do you do for Christmas

[Trulyfedup]

Blimey!!! You.ve got a challenge...i don't eat meat but I do eat fish...there is a lovely three fish dish..salmon, smoked haddock and cod, it's really delicious. Don't roast spuds in goose fat then everyone can have them...the vegan could eat her socks!!!!! I normally find people get in a state when I'm going because they don't know what to do (I didn't eat fish either at one time) but I was very happy with loads of veg and Roasties. We play Ludo when we have had a few..Trival Pursuit , we cheat terribly..it's hysterical. Then cars but to be honest by this time after many glasses of champagne, wine and Baileys we don't really know what we are playing...I'm actually making up a board game this year...once drawn I will have it laminated....oh boy, am I going to make them do silly things. Don't panic, Christmas Day always seems to be fun. My friend loves Put the Tail on the Donkey so I would imagine that will be played at some stage...and she is "doing" the Day...with kiddies there will be 21 of us...if all fails bring out the dart board...we also sit around and one person starts the made up story off, then the person next to them adds another sentence and so on...it can be very funny. All I'm hoping is that I feel better than I am at the moment...I hope you are ok too..maryx

[Hidden in reply to Trulyfedup]

Where do you live Mary? I'm on my way over. Your party sounds better than mine.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'd forgotten about Ludo - have spent many an hysterical hour on that. Also cheating like mad. Have you tried Cranium? That has been recommended.

I recall that Jamie Oliver once suggested par-boiling and semi-roasting the potatoes and then freezing them. Bring them out on the day and shove them in the oven to finish off. I may try that.

ps - Alice can't eat her socks - I think they may be wool. I'm in the process of knitting her some non-wool legwarmers - suits me, acrylic is way cheaper!.

[Trulyfedup in reply to Hidden]

Don't forget to roast spuds in oil rather than any fat so all can eat. I think the hot buffet sounds very good..Jamie Oliver's advice sounds good too..I'm still working out what to do with The Baileys dish I promised (apart f.rom drinking it that is). I loved your comment about the socks!!!!!!! Maryx

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

It had never occurred to me until now that vegans can't eat wool.

Uno is a fun game, though not as fun as just turning up at Mary's house and joining in. They'll be so drunk they won't notice....

Dotty x

[Trulyfedup in reply to Dotty7]

Just come we.d love to have you...bring a bottle of Baileys!!!

[Hidden in reply to Trulyfedup]

A Baileys fountain would be an excellent present - I think I may go off and try to invent one. I may make my fortune, provided I don't drink it all.

[Trulyfedup in reply to Hidden]

Please hurry up with inventing the fountain...I await with excitement. Maryx

[Hidden in reply to Trulyfedup]

Ok, I've managed to get the pump out of the pond. ( I'm sure a bit of blanket weed will be fine). I've chopped a bit off my hose pipe and I have a bucket! Excellent progress so far. I have been racking my brain to come up with an on/off switch but then it occurred to me that an off switch would be surplus to our requirements. Now, if I can just fix this colander onto the pump then Bob's your uncle!

[Trulyfedup in reply to Hidden]

Wow.it sounds great. You know you're mad of course!!!! How much Baileys do you think you are going to need..if we come in stuff for the pond we could always just throw ourselves in!!! X

[Hidden in reply to Dotty7]

Well there are 5/6 in my party Dotty which brings Mary's total up to 27. How many guests are you bringing to Mary's party? - Open House you know.

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

Just me and my daughter, and my mum and dad and nan. As well as a barrel of Baileys what shall we contribute to the buffet? Socks? Sausages?

[Hidden in reply to Dotty7]

ok, so that's 34 at Mary's - Can you manage that Mary? I'm sure that I can find a way to hook your barrel of Baileys up to my newly invented Baileys fountain. I'm glad you are bringing a barrel with you because I fear that I may have consumed mine before arriving. Got to test the fountain you know.

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

It wouldn't do to have a malfunction.

[Hidden in reply to Dotty7]

I'm glad we understand each other Dotty. I can't bear shabby work - especially when it comes to a Baileys fountain.

[Trulyfedup in reply to Dotty7]

As I'm a veggie (with lapses) no wool socks please...try to eat a pair last year...it wouldn't have been so bad if my friends husband hadn't been wearing them all Christmas Eve!! X

[Trulyfedup in reply to Hidden]

Bring who you like...you know the saying..."The more the merrier. And I believe most of you will be!!!!!!!!! X

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Creaky, Don't bother par boiling spuds etc. get some Aunt Bessie's frozen, quite nice, saves all the hassle and easy on the hands !

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Good old Aunt Bessie. Can I really cheat on Christmas Day though?

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

No better time to do it. M&S Christmas pudding and trifle too.

[miss]

Hell fire please can another 3 land at your door to sounds lovely.In our house we play them tv games telly addict family fortunes.

Have been know to do those's party packs curry;s .chinese ,salads, roast potatoes, meats ,cheese etc at least your guests can choose what they want and beats not peeling tons of veg!!!!! xxx

[Hidden in reply to miss]

That sounds like a plan Miss. We are all going to Mary's now though. How many of you are coming?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Ah I just noticed you said 3 - that makes Mary's party for 37 I believe. Maybe we ought to bring some chairs with us.

[miss in reply to Hidden]

Yes that write 3 thinks chairs would be a grand idea think another barrel of baileys too excited now can't wait xxx

[Hidden]

My suggestion would be some kind of hot buffet arrangement - with labels! That way everyone can take responsibility for their own dietary needs. Who could have known that I would reach fifty and start to see the advantages of my Mum's old 'hostess trolley' from the '7Os!

We will be 2 vegetarians & 2 meat eaters, that includes a son who has coeliac disease and a daughter and son who have wheat intolerances. My son is cooking the roast turkey and all the trimmings and my daughter and I will have everything except the meat bits plus a veggie dish that I need to cook this weekend and put in the freezer. We have been cooking gluten-free since my eldest son was diagnosed at 14 months so that sorts all that out. After the Christmas Dinner it will be buffet type service all the way - and curry:-}

We always used to play Twister in the days when I could still contort myself - hilarious!

Good Luck:-}

Cece x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

OMG! Hostess trolley - those were amazing. Everyone seemed to have one which sat in the corner of the room looking ugly and rarely used. Bring them back!

What veggie dish are you doing? I'm assuming nut roast will be what I do but not convinced as it's a bit predictable.

Do you know, I've never actually played twister - will not intentionally anyway although some of the positions have been familiar after a tipple or three.

Talking about contortions, my brother-in-law sent me this link yesterday for a suggested exercise routine for me. I'm sure you'll all enjoy it and sympathise with me for having such heartless and mocking relatives.

youtube.com/embed/61cY1ILv6...

Why are they singing about potatoes?

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

Back in the day when I was a vegetarian, I used to make an awesome raised pie, filled with layers of mushrooms and chestnuts and chestnut puree. It looked spectacular and was certainly different from a nut roast.

[Hidden in reply to Dotty7]

That sounds amazing. Have you still got the recipe?

[Dotty7 in reply to Hidden]

I have a horrible feeling I made it up. It was a hot water crust pastry, made with vegetable fat instead of lard, and moulded to fit inside a loose-bottomed cake tin, for ease of removal. I think I sautéed lots of sliced mushrooms, probably with garlic. I'm now thinking I would probably do some layers of red onions as well, but I don't think they had been invented then. The chestnut part was canned plain chestnut puree, mashed and mixed with some cream (unless these are vegans?), black pepper and a bit of salt. Put it all in the pie shell in layers, put a lid on it, add some arty-farty pastry decorations, glaze it with eggwash (unless there are vegans) and bake it until the pastry is good and crisp, because it needs to hold itself up when you take the tin off it. If you have one, serve it on a cake pedestal thingy because you want people to see the darn thing. Stand back and wait for gasps of amazement. That's not much of a recipe, to be honest, but should point you in the right direction.

Big flat mushrooms stuffed with something luxurious can also be nice and look good and feel substantial - blue cheese is quite festive. Or a nut mixture if you're feeding sock-eaters.

Hope that helps.

Dotty xx

[Hidden in reply to Dotty7]

haha enough with the sock eaters Dotty. I blame Mary for this falsehood! I may have a practise run with this. It sounds delicious - minus the vegan abhorrent bits. Red onions do seem to have been a fairly recent invention don't they?

[Trulyfedup in reply to Dotty7]

Your pie sounds wonderful...please send destructions to me...thank you.x

[Trulyfedup in reply to Trulyfedup]

It's ok just seen them.x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

No, not nut roast I'm not a fan of that! I'm making something vegetable based - lots of onion and garlic, in a creamy sauce with a puff pastry top. The veg content always depends on what veg are in the fridge - I get a veg box delivery fortnightly from a local farm I prefer to eat what is in season and available locally. 'Big sigh' from daughter - lots of peeling, scraping and chopping for her - our version of 'ready to use' veggies:-} She doesn't realise that this is how I spent my childhood Sunday mornings before Mass!

We par-boil the potatoes then fluff the sides with a fork - it gets done first thing as with the other veg then son can pop them in with the turkey etc. Love roast parsnips too - no one else does so all the more for me! x

[Hidden]

Goodness it can be a logistical nightmare can't it? It's the one day of the year I wish for a cooking range with 3 or 4 ovens! My Mum is Coeliac, my middle son is vegetarian, my eldest son's girlfriend will not eat any pork products or dairy. I have a garlic intolerance and my youngest son will not eat vegetables or have gravy!

Last year I forgot the Brussels sprouts which I had put in the microwave to keep warm (I'd run out of counter space) by the time we remembered, halfway through the meal, the cling film I put over the bowl to keep the heat in, had melted and moulded like a shrink wrap over and around the Brussels! Totally inedible, oops! (Never liked sprouts anyway....tee hee)

Good luck with your various menus and party games, I'm sure all will have a wonderful time (just don't attempt Twister!

JoJo x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It sounds as though your Christmas menu is also going to be a challenge Jojo. Do you make a veggie dish?

I'm contemplating a game called Cards Against Humanity. Apparently extremely non-P.C. but the reviews for it are massively favourable. Apparently you have to be a bit warped to enjoy it. I can do warped.

[sylvi]

It depends on when christmas day is and who is working,we have our meal the nearest day to the big day and then on the day we have a big breakfast and then it is serve yourself.There is always plenty of food.If you do a buffet then no one can complain can they.With a buffet you can prepare the food beforehand and you can cook a turkey and a nice salmon and you can always go to a health food store and get something there for the funny eaters. xxxx

[Hidden in reply to sylvi]

You speak the words of an experienced lady Sylvi. I expect when your hubby was in the services you had to make quite a few adaptations around his duty timetable.

I'm definitely going with the preparation beforehand. I quite like the idea of a buffet also. Thanks for that. Judy

[Hidden]

Phew, that makes me sooooo glad I'm invited to DIL's for Christmas. She does a cracking roast turkey and she and my son don't like sprouts - so that's another bonus, as she won't cook any for my OH. We even get taken there by DIL's mother. So I'm in for a lovely lazy day - mind you, every day is a lazy day for me (blushes). All this talking about food has made me hungry! xx

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hmmmm. Time I started encouraging my son to get married. Errmmm....does your OH have a particular problem with sprouts?

[Trulyfedup in reply to Hidden]

I went to a beauty clinic once and the very attractive receptionist asked me if I exfoliated....I replied.."Oh yes, especially after Brussels sprouts!!!"