So, about Christmas. First of all, most of you are waking up on Christmas Eve going what kind of crazy early fam Chrimbo has Riverflows got going on? Except it's 7pm as I write on the day before Christmas, and usually - usually - the German side of the family celebrate on this night, as is tradition there.

Except earlier in the week my sister had a cold, which may have been COVID, or not, who knows, and then Mum and Dad were ill, and then suddenly Friday they were all fine. We - that is, my son and daughter in law with the new bub - didn't find this convincing, and not wanting to catch a cold for little Ned or us before Tassie, we decided just to do the Christmas with the four of us - five of us, six if you count the dog. I count the dog. She's the hairy one. Well hairy face, anyway - Ned's got the hairy shoulders.

I made some Christmas hats for all of us, even Ned, out of some paper I had. You know me and mushrooms. The table was a simple affair but I reckon I nailed it.

We thought we'd do lunch, so yesterday I'd prepped the lentil filling for the vegetarian wellington pastry thingie. Now these are not ordinary lentils, so don't be getting all anti - vegan angry on me!

It's an incredible traybake ragu with all these incredible flavours going on brought about by four types of mushrooms, white miso, red wine, tomatoes and all kinds of yummy things to make a really meaty taste. Trust me. It's the bomb.

And omg - my mushroom gravy was to DIE for. I'd used pink oyster mushrooms and portobellos. I'll definitely be posting about this at some point. It's the best gravy I have ever made.

I also had prepped for a kick ass salad, so all I had to do was throw it together. In fact, I was so darn grateful for day before me, as I didn't sleep last night (probably for all the anxiety over the failed fam Christmas) and ended up going for a surf very friggin early, like 5 am early, so was pretty tired.

And oh boy I totally nailed the potatoes. Nailed them I tell you. Apparently you chuck a bit of baking soda in there to make the water alkaline, boil the potatoes, stir them into a kind of floury mess, add infused oil, then roast em. Totally crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

After a few wines I'd forgotten to take photos. Had my killer mince pies (more on this later) with two sorts of plant based icecream (shut up vegan haters, I just LIKE it better. I have nothing against 'real' icecream except it's too 'real' creamy for me.), mangos and berries.

Even Ned looks like he's had way too much pudding.

In a nutshell, I nailed Christmas Eve lunch. Totally.

So, moving right along to the Weekend Engagement challenge, @galenkp, I'm kinda cheating on the old 'what are you planning to eat Christmas day' because it's just going to be more of the same, except we're having a bit of a van party down the coast somewhere with my folks and my sister's family. The fridge is packed, including a few beers (I fancied a raspberry berliner weisse!) and my son's homemade stollen.

I also love my new decorations, which are dried oranges, and they are super funky as they catch all the different colours of the fairy lights. The same fairy lights that make my fancy Christmas paper glow prettily.

I am looking forward to tomorrow as the surf's meant to be good and I love a surf on Christmas day. And it'll be nice to see the fam I didn't see today - we'll be outside so less of a risk of getting ill.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas tomorrow. I won't be posting or Hiving as I want to enjoy the day but I'll be back after Christmas to return a reply to all your comments.