I truly love the way my in-laws celebrate the holidays! My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Husband are all from Reading, England (accents and all) and we celebrate the holidays with this insanely wonderful, British charm.
We slept in until 8 AM, and then I was greeted by strong, French press coffee and Cadbury covered-shortbread biscuits.
The chocolate maps are the best, don’t you agree?
I ate half a banana, too, and then we all watched as my mother-in-law and sister-in-law cooked the most amazing breakfast:
Plus mimosas!
So, a fun tradition for English folk are crackers. As my mother-in-law puts it, crackers are “A true Christmas tradition in England. We open them at the dinner table with crossed hands. I don’t know why we do it that way, but we do! Whoever gets the center of the cracker, gets that hat and prize. Plus, they go BANG when you pull them. The kids love them, but the adults think, “Ohmigoodness I’ve got to wear that hat all through dinner!†But it’s just a little bit of fun! Don’t they have the crackers in America?! What do you do?!†Please imagine the preceding spoken in a cute, English accent with lots of tra-la-la laughs in between.
I got a red hat and a plastic pink charm bracelet. The boys got a mini deck of cards and a blue plastic shoehorn.
Yes, we wore the ugly sweaters to breakfast. Got to get use out of them.
The ladies cooked hash browns, English muffins with scrambled egg and steamed spinach covered in a rich homemade Hollandaise sauce, and stir-fried mushrooms.
Then, we sloooowly opened presents. I bet we have the highest presents per minute ratio in the entire country.
Guess what I got?
I need to order a smaller size, but I am SO excited to try barefoot running in the Spring!
We also went on a lovely walk on my very favorite trail of the entire world. It is absolutely PERFECT weather in Palm Coast today….
I hope you’re having a very Merry Christmas (or just a wonderful Saturday). Happy holidays from my family to you and yours!
Merry Christmas!