South African Christmas (Wednesday, December 25th, 2019)

Now that the house is done, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend were kind enough to host both families for Christmas this year.  Since they spent part of their fall in South Africa, they decided to make it a South African Christmas, complete with all of their favorite flavors from that part of the world.

The preparations started the day before, with so much to do before the big day.  She prepared ox tail stew, bobotie, turmeric rice and rhiannon flat bread and did all of the chopping for her salad.

The flat bread was rolled out, and rather than cooking it on the traditional open flame, it was baked in the smoker.  Ingenious!

The number of spices that went into the bobotie and ox tail stew were tremendous, and brought the entire house to life with aromas that were out of this world!

No one can stay away, not even the dog!  Everything smelled so good!

Christmas morning, our family came over early so that we could celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts before everyone else showed up.  It was a perfect opportunity for all of us to be together one last time.

As the rest of the guests started arriving, the final preparations for the South African dinner were under way.  The special condiments of coconut, raisins and bananas for the bobotie were placed in ramekins.

The oxtail stew was checked one last time.

And this delicious meal that had been taunting us for the past 24 hours was ready to be served!

Sixteen people, one new home, and the love of families coming together at Christmas made this a day to cherish! 

We can't thank our youngest daughter and her boyfriend enough for making this a Christmas we will never forget!