My Greek Christmas Part III – Deck The Halls

Oh Christmas tree

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, oh yes it is!

For the past couple of mornings, on surveying the world from my window, I had my suspicions about the silvery white stuff that had appeared over night, could it be frost?

Or was it only dew?

Having a hectic time ahead, today I arose with the lark, and on drawing back the curtains , my suspicions were confirmed, yes, we have snow!

Let it snow let it snow, let it snow. Our garden in Loutraki, Greece.

If you have been following my Big Fat Greek Christmas goings on, you will know I am attempting a Christmas cake this year, which I shall probably still be eating until Easter, as my family don’t partake of this particular bit of Christmas spirit.

All is looking good so far and we have reached the marzipan stage. Before starting on this though, as it is also “Tree trimming day” and, since the birth of my granddaughter Melina, three and a half years ago, now a traditional family day, I’ll make my scrumptious lemon drizzle cake.

Lemon Drizzle Cake – A firm family favourite, always a winner

If I time things right, while the cake is in the oven, I’ll prepare my delicious Greek style meat loaffor lunch, and then proceed with the marzipan, while MGG (My Greek God) erects the tree, one of those dratted things that have to be put together, branch by branch, takes an age, and by the time you have arrived at the bottom branches, you’re wishing you’d never heard of Christmas.

Nothing ever goes to plan though does it?

My program didn’t take in the help of a three year old, that adds double time to everything, or my son’s new family member, Loco, a three month old Jack Russell dog, who certainly lives up to his name!

Loco, in name and character!

Melina, now fed up with the meat loaf preparations, is eager to start on the tree, MGG has not finished with his task though, I can hear him swearing and cursing in the sitting room, apparently I had not packed the branches of the tree away, last year, in the right order.

I bribe Mel with the marzipan, we’ll make it together, we did, and she got in a mess, as I knew she would, as did the kitchen floor, marzipan underfoot is not good.

Marzipan ingredients.

At last, the tree is up, MGG has worked miracles and calls Mel to get on with the main job of the day, the whole point of the day, the moment Mel has been waiting for, to trim the tree!

Peace in the kitchen, but not in the sitting room, Loco has sniffed out the tree decorations, all hell is let loose; bring out the Christmas cheer, glug, glug!

“Hey, Santa! Pass us that bottle, will you!” – Lyrics from Jethro Tull’s “Christmas Song”

I finish the marzipan, and lo and behold, manage to transfer it to the cake (Of which I have cut off the burnt bits!) in one piece.

The results are much better than I expected.

Succeeded in transferring this, from here to there, in one piece!

Marzipan on the cake – So far, so good!

At this point, I have a little chuckle to myself, remembering the first Christmas cake I ever made, helped by my good friend Alison, this was way back in 1980, or there about.

“The year of the catastrophic Christmas cake”

We couldn’t track down fresh white almonds, for the marzipan, but, never mind, we’ll just blanche the roasted, salted type, “It’ll be right”, as we say in Yorkshire.

Well it wasn’t “right”, we had to discard that bit, (The best), before we could eat the cake.

Today, it might have been “right”, the mode seems to be for “Sweet and salty”!

The salty flavour was not the only problem; remember when silver balls were all the rage for decorating Christmas cakes?

Silver balls were easy to come across in Greece, strange, because I had never seen them on a Greek cake, then again, at this point; I had never been to a Greek memorial service for the dead!

Greek memorial cake for the dead

When Alison and I proudly presented our efforts to MGG and Aris (Now Alison’s husband of many happy years) they just about rolled on the floor with laughter.

What had we done?

We had embellished our Christmas cake, with a myriad of silver balls, as is the traditional way that Greeks decorate memorial cakes (Koliva), presented in the church, forty days after the death of a loved one.

What can I say? We were young, we were new to Greece, you live and learn!

The Way We Were – Left to right, Aris & Alison, Ali & I, MGG

Back to Christmas present, eventually everything came together, the marzipan was on the cake, the tree was trimmed, I will move some the decorations to the top half of the tree later, right now, everything is at “Melina height”.

Let me tell you, decorating a Christmas tree with a three year old, is no job for a control freak!

Tis the season to be jolly

My Mother-in-law gave us this cross, for our Christmas tree, on my son John’s first Christmas, thirty two years ago.

We sat down to lunch, albeit an hour late, but happy, Loco, the mad Jack Russell biting my toes under the table.

Later that evening, when they had all left, while tidying up, I found that Loco had left me my first surprise Christmas gift, a little puddle, just in front of the dining room door, Loco; presents are meant to go under the tree.

Happy first Christmas Loco. Grrrrrr!

After some more Christmas cheer, alone, a very crucial fact!, I added a few more Christmas accents.

Still life

This antique tea caddy belonged to my great grandmother, the cute candlestick depicts Eros and the sweet little Christmas tree candles, in silver bases, are a gift from my sister-in-law.