Christmas

Despite best intentions, I never really got around to Christmas-related blogging this year.

What I do have is the traditional Christmas cake shot:



Seemed to come out OK this year. Only red cherries, as I went to the "other" supermarket on baking weekend, and they only had the one colour.

Roman Day

Following the children's interest in things Roman, we decided to have a Roman Day. We chose to celebrate the holiday of ludi plebeii, as it was conveniently located on our calendar.

The day began with "Roman baths". Our version was not as complicated an affair as the Romans would have experienced. First, we had the scented hot bath, followed by a cold plunge (quick cold shower), followed again by the scented bath. No photos...

Next, a trip to the massage room.




Then the kitchen slaves got to work preparing the feast. Here is a whole fish waiting to be cooked....



...while the children of the household waited in the shade of tents.




Roman maiden (with tunic and bulla).



Roman boy.




I had nothing like a stolla, so wore my summer dressing gown. Brendon spent part of the day resplendent in a toga made out of our sheets. No photos.....!

The first part of the feast was eaten outside. Pickled fish, mussels, flat bread, greek olives, goats cheese and Italian cheese.



The main course was served indoors - chicken, cold ham, fish, lentil and carrot soup, bread, cucumber with honey.




And cheap Italian red!



The whole fish looked less appealing now....




Reclining after the meal.




A bit of dessert - mint tea with honey, honey and date cake (no sugar), one orange to share between the family.




Then on to the games! We had gladiator contests.



(Including a junior division).



We had chariot races...




...which could be hazardous!



This was followed by some music and dancing.

We weren't 100% authentic, but it didn't really matter. It was fun researching what we would do - and what we might do next time!

Camo cake

In catch-up mode a little on here...

Aidan wanted a camouflage cake for his friends birthday party (after making a marble cake with me a couple of weeks ago). We decided on black, green and khaki.

Khaki was easy to make - basically mix up everything with an accent on green for that muddy look. Then on goes the more lurid green....















Then black. Yummy!!



















Then lick the bowl and twist the colours together.





















Ice in the morning with dark green icing and decorate with soldiers.





Actually it tasted fine.
















Unfortunately it rained on party day. The water bombs still went down a treat. Here's Brendon running the water bomb gauntlet to complete his mission, armed only with a quad block gun.