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Posts Tagged ‘christmas’

  1. Christmas dinner

    December 27, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    As we’re expecting our first child in March 2011, we thought we’d treat ourselves this Christmas Day to having dinner cooked by someone else. It’s probably the last chance we’ll get for another 20 years or so. We have a gorgeous old pub around the corner, ‘The Olde Swan’, complete with original land documents framed around the place as well as old pictures of Milton Keynes (yes, it has an actual history) and open fires galore. Anywho, Alex booked Christmas Lunch there last month so off we set through the snow for our noms.

    I say, through the snow – we had originally planned to walk. However, our cat Echo has a habit of thnking she’s a loyal dog when we walk anywhere and tends to follow us. Last time we tried to toddle to the pub we got within 50 metres and she refused to go any further, meaning we had to turn round and go back (within having even sniffed a bevvy) lest she get lost. So it was safer to take the car. Sorry environment!

    Anyway, long story short, brilliant dinner and great to have someone else deal with all the cooking/cleaning up. I had butternut squash veloute to start. Basically, very very thick home made soup. Nom. Then venison for the mains – I’ve not had venison in years! Finally, some sort of strawberry creme brulee thingy that was also delicious. And of course, it was all followed up with nibbles for the rest of the evening – Twiglets, After Eights, all those must haves :o)


  2. Tis the season…

    December 27, 2010 by Amy Hansford

    …to catch up with people and eat lovely food.

    Yep, I’ve been rubbish at blogging of late. I have all the usual excuses – pick the one you prefer.

    On Christmas Eve, we chauffered our friends Dee and Richard for their wedding. A Christmassy spectaular, with ‘Sleigh Ride’ as part of the service and balloon model reindeer on all the tables. It was a brilliant day, fantastic to see everyone and special to have been able to contibute a favour rather than a traditional wedding gift.

    Speaking of favours and gifts, every reception attendee was met with a goody bag. Lovely Christmassy bits in them, but I won’t spoil the secrets within.

    Another great bit of fun for the tables was the introduction of a ‘pass the parcel’ only with instructions on who should open the next layer rather than relying on music, i.e. the person with the smallest shoe size, the person with the shortest hair etc. I think our table pretty much trampled over everyone’s attempts at doing the loudest animal noise.

    Also, the wedding contained probably the best first dance I have ever seen. You’ve watched the videos of people dancing down the aisle, people re-enacting Dirty Dancing, people slow dancing only to break into Mc Hammer’s ‘You Can’t Touch This’. Rich and Dee not only acted out clips from at least 30 songs, they’d managed to construct it so as to tell the story of how they met. Brilliant.

    Rich and Dee’s first dance


  3. Costumes: Pubs

    December 21, 2009 by Amy Hansford

    This year, one of the New Year party invites came with a theme I’d not experienced before; Pub Names. Fairly obvious when you think about it, but still one I’d not given much thought to. I’ve pretty much figured out what I’m going as now, but for those of you in my earlier predicament, here’s a handy list of ideal pub names.

    All Bar One – paint every number over your top over and over again, except the number 1
    Anchor
    Bat and Ball
    The Black Cap
    The Blind Beggar – host to 10,000 London cabbies, all seemingly present at the Kray shoot out.
    Boathouse
    Bricklayer’s Arms – brickie
    The Bright Star
    The Butcher
    The Castle
    Cat and Fiddle
    Charlie Brown’s
    The Chequers – black and white dress
    Cock and Bull – oh, behave.
    The Compasses
    Cricketers
    Cross Keys
    The Crown – Beefeater
    The Devil’s Punchbowl
    Dirty Dick’s – Dick Turpin
    Dog and Bear
    Dog and Duck
    The English Rose
    The Fisherman’s Arms
    Flame – gay pub in Luton
    The Fox
    Fox and Hounds
    George and the Dragon – think Saint George in his knight phase
    The Globe
    The Grapes
    Green Man – meant to be a spirit of the woods; with modernisation, now the Green Giant who sells sweetcorn
    The Halfway House
    The Highwayman – Dick Turpin
    Hog’s Head
    Hope and Anchor
    The Horseshoe
    Hungry Horse
    The Jolly Sailor
    King’s Arms/Head – choose a king
    Leaky Cauldron
    Lord Nelson
    Man in the Moon – think the Mighty Boosh
    Nag’s Head
    The Phoenix
    Pig and Whistle
    Pink Punters
    Prince of Wales
    The Queen Vic – Queen Victoria
    Queen’s Arms/Head – choose a queen
    The Railway Tavern
    Red Dragon
    Red Lion
    Robin Hood
    Rose and Crown
    Sherlock Holmes – the famous detective
    Slug and Lettuce
    The Smugglers
    Three Broomsticks
    Three Tuns
    Unicorn
    White Bear
    White Hart
    White Horse
    White Lion
    The Winchester – go as Shaun of the Dead
    The Woolpack – sheep