Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (A)
Well this is a bit late really to be saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, but all the same we thought that we would share with you the way we spent our Irish Christmas and New Year.
Work wise over the Christmas and New Year was very busy for me as it was the end of the financial year for most of the companies that I am involved with and I was covering for Karla while she was in Mexico.
As I said in the last blog we had Christmas Eve dinner at Monika's house. Monika always says that she isn't much of a chef, but she really out-did herself. She made Beetroot soup and tortellini, and chicken goulash and potato pancakes, with good old Dunnes caramel ice-cream for dessert. While Monika was cooking the meal I was busy making a pavlova and Kahlua chocolate cheesecake. So as you can imagine it was a very busy evening.
Amy stayed at our house on Christmas Eve. We had already bought her presents around so that she would be able to open them with people bright and early. Christmas was really an eating and drinking extravaganza. In hindsight we really needed about 20 people to get through all the food instead of four of us.
Christmas morning at the flat
The day started with a hearty fry up and champagne. From there we moved on to a platter containing 5 different cheeses, salami, smoked salmon, hummus, sun dried tomatoes, pineapple, grapes, and rock melon. After this feast we played a game of Cluedo. The game got very competitive, and Monika with her tactical thinking and experience of the game took the top honours. After we had used our brains a bit we had our lunch, which was a roast chicken, ham, seafood salad, green salad and spuds. And of course more wine. We were pretty full after all this, so we retired again to the lounge for some more game playing.
Snacks before lunch, Monika, Amy, Matt and Nono, our Japanese flatmate
This time we played the Game of Life. I was the superstar, who commanded a huge pay check and Matt was a teacher. Well, I was about as popular as Britney Spears, and was pretty much never employed, whilst Matt was teaching extra classes left, right and centre. I was the first to finish the Game of Life, but Matt was the winner.
After some amount of time and watching a bit of Finding Nemo, we marched ourselves back into the kitchen to take on dessert. We had a pavlova, a chocolate Kahlua cheesecake, Trifle, Chocolate Eclairs and Ice-cream. Well we didn't get through much at all. Monika took herself off home not long after that, and Matt climbed up into bed not looking very healthy at all. Amy and I went for a bit of a walk at 10.30pm but it started raining so we headed home. Mind you I think that we would have had to walk the length and breadth of Ireland to have made any real difference.
Dessert for the four of us
We had a few pretty chilled out days after Christmas, which mostly involved eating left-overs. I didn't have to cook for like a week. We had a pretty quiet weekend too, which involved much sitting around, Matt building a 3D computer image of his parents house and me nagging at him that we really need to do something. In the end we decided to go out for a big slap-up dinner.
After much cunning and slyness I tricked Matt into wearing his suit, and we set off to Cooke's restaurant for a bells and whistles dinner. We had a lovely reflective night about all the amazing things that we have seen and done this year and all the fantastic things that the future has in store for us. Somehow we managed to fit in three courses and a bottle of wine. We then went down the way for another couple of drinks to reminisce about how great our memories are of the year that was.
Myself and Abby dressed up to go out for dinner
We caught a taxi home and stood outside the house having a 'moment'. Next thing
I know, Matt has asked me 'Abby, will you marry me?'
'Really?' I asked.
'Yes, really' he answered.
'Seriously?' I ask.
'Yes, seriously, will you marry me?'
After a bit more of that, I said yes, and we hugged and kissed and felt generally pretty pleased with ourselves.
So next thing is we tell people and wedding plans are well in truly under way.
Amy and Abby on New Years, up at the rugby club
Some of the rugby lads. It was also Jared's (centre frame) 50th birthday.
Work wise over the Christmas and New Year was very busy for me as it was the end of the financial year for most of the companies that I am involved with and I was covering for Karla while she was in Mexico.
As I said in the last blog we had Christmas Eve dinner at Monika's house. Monika always says that she isn't much of a chef, but she really out-did herself. She made Beetroot soup and tortellini, and chicken goulash and potato pancakes, with good old Dunnes caramel ice-cream for dessert. While Monika was cooking the meal I was busy making a pavlova and Kahlua chocolate cheesecake. So as you can imagine it was a very busy evening.
Amy stayed at our house on Christmas Eve. We had already bought her presents around so that she would be able to open them with people bright and early. Christmas was really an eating and drinking extravaganza. In hindsight we really needed about 20 people to get through all the food instead of four of us.
Christmas morning at the flat
The day started with a hearty fry up and champagne. From there we moved on to a platter containing 5 different cheeses, salami, smoked salmon, hummus, sun dried tomatoes, pineapple, grapes, and rock melon. After this feast we played a game of Cluedo. The game got very competitive, and Monika with her tactical thinking and experience of the game took the top honours. After we had used our brains a bit we had our lunch, which was a roast chicken, ham, seafood salad, green salad and spuds. And of course more wine. We were pretty full after all this, so we retired again to the lounge for some more game playing.
Snacks before lunch, Monika, Amy, Matt and Nono, our Japanese flatmate
This time we played the Game of Life. I was the superstar, who commanded a huge pay check and Matt was a teacher. Well, I was about as popular as Britney Spears, and was pretty much never employed, whilst Matt was teaching extra classes left, right and centre. I was the first to finish the Game of Life, but Matt was the winner.
After some amount of time and watching a bit of Finding Nemo, we marched ourselves back into the kitchen to take on dessert. We had a pavlova, a chocolate Kahlua cheesecake, Trifle, Chocolate Eclairs and Ice-cream. Well we didn't get through much at all. Monika took herself off home not long after that, and Matt climbed up into bed not looking very healthy at all. Amy and I went for a bit of a walk at 10.30pm but it started raining so we headed home. Mind you I think that we would have had to walk the length and breadth of Ireland to have made any real difference.
Dessert for the four of us
We had a few pretty chilled out days after Christmas, which mostly involved eating left-overs. I didn't have to cook for like a week. We had a pretty quiet weekend too, which involved much sitting around, Matt building a 3D computer image of his parents house and me nagging at him that we really need to do something. In the end we decided to go out for a big slap-up dinner.
After much cunning and slyness I tricked Matt into wearing his suit, and we set off to Cooke's restaurant for a bells and whistles dinner. We had a lovely reflective night about all the amazing things that we have seen and done this year and all the fantastic things that the future has in store for us. Somehow we managed to fit in three courses and a bottle of wine. We then went down the way for another couple of drinks to reminisce about how great our memories are of the year that was.
Myself and Abby dressed up to go out for dinner
We caught a taxi home and stood outside the house having a 'moment'. Next thing
I know, Matt has asked me 'Abby, will you marry me?'
'Really?' I asked.
'Yes, really' he answered.
'Seriously?' I ask.
'Yes, seriously, will you marry me?'
After a bit more of that, I said yes, and we hugged and kissed and felt generally pretty pleased with ourselves.
So next thing is we tell people and wedding plans are well in truly under way.
M: What can I say? She made me wear a suit and I only do that every blue moon, so I thought I'd make the most of it. But seriously, I'm pleased as punch that we'll be getting married next February.
For New Years, Abby, Mac and I ended up down at the rugby club. It was a bit quieter down there than I expected and there was only about twenty of us all together. However, that made it awful easy to get to the bar and we rolled home early in the morning after a good night.
Amy and Abby on New Years, up at the rugby club
Some of the rugby lads. It was also Jared's (centre frame) 50th birthday.
posted by Abby at 11:43 AM
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