a big fat greek adventure: christmas day

For some reason I get this default feeling on christmas eve; like the excitement you get when your a kid and you know "santa" is coming, but the adult version. Despite the knowledge that santa isn't real, the excitement is still there; about presents of course, but more and more I just look forward to a lazy day eating chocolate and cake, pudding and potatoes, roast turkey, stuffing, and sausages wrapped in bacon all covered in gravy!

But given our current location for christmas 2010, an English feast was never a possibility (unless cooked by Harry and I and i'm not sure our kitchen could handle such a challenge). I'm not going to lie, being that it's my first christmas away from home, I was a little bit sad about the whole day. Yeh we had a baby christmas tree and tinsel round the Tv, and yeh Harry and I exchanged gifts (with neither of us sticking to the €20 limit we set ourselves), and yeh we had a box of ferrero rocher to devour, but I was very dubious about what our Cypriot christmas had to offer.

Waking up to blazing sunshine and blue sky, it felt more like spring not christmas. We did the present opening bit in our pyjamas; I got some expensive MAC lip balm and Body Shop moisturisers and Harry got the entire contents of the art shop, some chocolate money (from Marks & Spencers) and a little toy truck. Christmas was going well so far. A quick Skype session with Harry's mother - still in her pyjamas but already sporting festive earrings - did make me a tad emotional, as did the phone call home to father Finerty (the pictures of the christmas dinner Harry's mum posted on my facebook later didn't help my christmas spirit much either).

Anyway, our christmas day was not all doom and gloom. After a bowl of frosties and some christmas songs courtesy of youtube, it was off to YaYa's to get the Cypriot christmas party started. Smelling like mango Body Shop moisturiser my belly was certainly looking forward to the feast ahead. While the men set up the barbecue and set about making fire, Harry and I took the dog for a walk. Thanks to the unseasonably warm weather we have been experiencing of late, I returned from said walk with a rather nice lashing of sun, which later became a golden tan. A tan on christmas day is definitely a first!

Now to the important bit. The food. So a traditional Cypriot christmas dinner is souvla, potatoes, salad, dolmades (vine leaves), Cypriot stuffing and chicken. Souvla is a Cypriot dish; large pieces of pork or lamb that are slow cooked over hot coals like any other barbecue. Except a Cypriot barbecue is an genius piece of machinery. The souvla is cooked on skewers that slowly turn thanks to a clever little electric mechanism attached to the barbecue. The result is some of the tastiest meat you will ever eat! mmmmhhhhhhhh. Obviously while we were waiting for the souvla to cook, there were various snacks floating around, meze style; barbecued hallumi, tomato, home made bread, traditional Cypriot sausage and the obligatory nuts. By the time we sat down to eat - in the garden at a huge table for 15 people - I had probably eaten numerous handfuls of nuts, a couple of sausages, half a slab of hallumi, 3 slices of bread and 2 tomatoes. Just lining the stomach (or something like that).

And I still found room for my dinner and Auntie Maria's home-made cheesecake. After a military style clean-up, there were some very heated games of tavli and a lot of slouching on the sofa in front of the Tv.

Under strict instructions, Harry documented the day as much as possible - some photographs appear cold and blue because of Harry's new blue filter for his camera, not because it actually was cold!

So while our first christmas in Cyprus (and our first christmas living together) was very enjoyable, it doesn't really feel like christmas has just happened - mainly because I am so used to an English christmas and what happened on Saturday was definitely not an English christmas. While in tradition, we had an extremely lazy boxing day with more eating and film watching, the festive period has flashed before our eyes. And so today, Harry is back at work, and I am preparing for my first day at work next week. But there is still time to celebrate the New Year - something me and Harry are never particularly bothered about. However we have a plan (sort of - it isn't set in stone). This year we are heading to Limassol after Harry finishes work on Friday, and spending New Years Eve by the beach with some of Harry's boat friends. It will be our first night out since we got here and I think we very much deserve it. We have worked (in various ways) very hard over the last 2 months to establish as much of a home here as we can and I think we have achieved quite a lot. New Year, new country, new jobs, new lifestyle, new possibilities (oh how emotional). I'm sure there will be a New Years Eve blog post for your enjoyment this time next week.

We hope you all enjoyed your christmas, whether you spent the day in your pyjamas and christmas earrings (not mentioning any names Alexia) or ate enough turkey and watched enough trashy tv to last you until next year, we hope it was a Happy one.