Christmas Day 2023

Family

25 Dec

Written By Sam C

Basting the roast chickens.

“In a break with tradition, skipping Christmas Day at my brother’s home for one at Parveen’s Mum instead.”

Usually for Christmas Day, Parveen and I will go to my brother’s home along with our parents and the rest of his in-laws. Where Lydia, his wife, will serve up Christmas dinner for everyone before we gather around their Christmas tree and see what presents their kids got.

As we’ve been doing that for more than a decade, this year we switched things up to spend Christmas Day with Parveen’s family instead. Joining us, with her Mum and her sister’s family was one of her brothers, Shabeer, and his family who drove all the way down from Leicester. As the saying goes: the more the merrier.

Getting there early to help out, Shaeen had already prepped a lot of chickens. Not just 1 or 2 but 6 whole chickens! And kilos of roast potatoes which are very important in the Hussain household. Whilst I did my best to help Shaeen - mainly by not getting in her way - Nani got all the vegetables sorted out.

With Shabeer’s family arriving right on cue as the roasties were done, it was time to squeeze all 6 chickens into the oven. It was a good thing that the foil platters are malleable as it was a tight squeeze.

Having to juggle between cooking batches of roast potatoes with the two batches of chickens that also needed oven space.

Before long, with a quick use of the meat thermometer to check that the chickens were cooked all the way through, it was time to feast.

After getting completely stuffed, and somehow managing to finish 5 out of the 6 chickens, it was time for Peeny’s inaugural Christmas quiz. A staple whenever we celebrate Eid with her family, this was the first time we did it for Christmas.

As usual, there was much conferring going on and a little Googling much to Peeny’s consternation. But, it was a lot of fun - especially with the fake multiple choice options that we provided - and the winner was Juveria by a single point.

In the meantime, Draco got all the scraps from the leftover chicken which he literally wolfed down in seconds.

Accompanying all the Christmas dinner prep was the preparation of the Pakistani pink tea - otherwise known as Kashmiri Chai. Apparently a drink that require meticulous attention to detail and a lot of patience. So much so, that it took hours to make!

To finish up, Peeny served up her two cakes she made for everyone. As usual, they went down a treat with her family. And I wasn’t left out as she made me a DF chocolate mousse which was yummy.