Banjo's First Christmas

Wednesday 25 December

Christmas Day with Banjo - what a blast!

Woke to grey skies and threat of rain - but we were cosy & warm inside so who cares!

Opened our minimalist stockings, had an early morning video call with Ella and Josh, then popped to the beach so Louis could have a Christmas morning swim and I could have more puppy & doggo cuddles - as well as a video call with my sister Caroline in the UK! I got chatting with a family of paddleboarders who had been out on the water on their SUPs whilst wearing Santa hats - my kind of people! Got a great pic of them and Louis joined in when he'd finished his swim.

Back at Banjo, Louis fried up the bacon on the Weber while I scrambled the eggs for breakfast (after an out of date Pannetone croissant disaster!) and we toasted the day with mimosas - cheers! Amy had sent us away with a pressie each so we had a video chat with her as we opened the gifts - a sparkly phone case for me and a boujee merino top for Louis.

A quick visit to the kitchens to wash up and admire the other campers' Christmas outfits, then we set to work cooking lunch and setting the Christmas table under the awning. Just as Ellen & Ciarán were about to arrive the Heavens opened but not for too long, thankfully.

I was rather proud of our Christmas lunch - I am not sure I've ever catered for so few over Christmas, and certainly never in a caravan - but we rustled up a very festive menu. Louis cooked the stuffed chook in the Weber in our fab Weber pan (already proved worth it's rather large price tag!) and I had a ham and some roastie potatoes going in the oven. We had pre-made much of the salads and just had to throw them together with scrummy dressings - I found the recipes for these in an Australian Women's Weekly "Easy Christmas Recipes" book in an op shop in Mt Maunganui and we had challenged ourselves to cater Christmas from this booklet!

Had a lovely long Christmas lunch, eating far too much as is the tradition - then Ellen & Ciaran kindly did the washing up before we headed down to the beach so the boys could take a wee dip and we could all make room for the dessert!

Dessert was a veritable smorgasbord of Christmas specials - two mini puds which we set light to and smothered in brandy butter, a pavlova, brandy snaps and mince pies. We demolished most of it before breaking out the whisky and the brandy... well, Louis and Ciaran did!

Chatted, played Banangrams, card games and finally got round to watching “Love Actually” until it was late then Ellen & Ciaran turned in to sleep in their car and we slipped into our luxurious Banjo queen bed, feeling very grateful!