This was my third year spending Christmas in Montreal. I hope that next year I get to show you Christmas in Ireland. This year I was very well organised. We had our tree up since Mid-Dec, which we usually get from Parc Lahaie, $48 for a 6 foot beast. I had all my Christmas shopping done in November and I had posted all my gifts to Ireland on time. My only worry now was feeding the family over Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, we celebrated according to our three-year-old tradition, with lamb curry, potato bhorta, daal and rice. We watched some movies and hung out, pretty quiet and cozy on our end.
And so, Santa came that night and left a slew of presents under the tree and filled our stockings to the brim. Our cat Jinho loved his new empty boxes and piles of wrapping paper. After breakfast we decided to open our prezzies and I can safely say we were all very happy. Mom and Dad, I know I have mentioned this a million times already but I love my new plates, what a present!
New Years Eve comes a little too fast after the christmas buzz. We had a pizza party at home. I made 5 pizzas. I used Jamie Oliver's pizza dough recipe and it was an absolute hit. It was simple and smashing. Farah took the pizza photos below with my new Christmas lens. I was too busy making the pizzas and being covered in flour to do anything else.
After dinner, we played Cards Against Humanity, which is a bit like Apples to Apples...but not at all!
New Years Day started with what we Irish call "The Cure". I know, I know, I will get an awful lot of abuse from home because there are greens on my plate. What can I do, I needed to make some space in my fridge. I think I will be forgiven once I say that I cooked them in bacon fat. I literally cannot remember what we did that day. Possibly lounge on the couch the entire day.
Little Women's Christmas is a little tradition we have back home and its still very big in Kerry. Farah, Fiona and I, headed to our favourite brunch place, Maison Publique. We sat at the bar as usual and had amazing service from Alex Cruz. Farah and Fiona both got the pancakes with bacon, while I got the boudin (black pudding) and eggs. Phil also sent us a present from the kitchen, a gorgeous reuben sandwich. Again, another delicious meal. Seriously, they get everything right.
A few shots of our neighbourhood from our walk home. The snow has since melted, because the weather decided to hit 10C, although this week it's been reported to go as low as -20C.
