CHRISTMAS AT CROZIERS

We are always delighted that Crete seems to pass by the hectic lead up to Christmas that happens elsewhere in the world and we enjoy the peaceful laid back shopping and instinct to keep things simple. I wish I had remembered this in my preparations for Christmas Day.  There are a few disadvantages, though, and being so far from family and friends is just one of them.

In the village, it was lovely to hear the children who came round the village carol singing on their last day of school wearing Santa hats and bashing triangles. Greek carols seem a bit odd to me without much of a melody except when I managed to identify jingle bells, but the children's excitement was lovely!

So, far from home and resisting the feeling of it being 'always winter and never Christmas', we tried to keep our spirits up by planning a traditional lunch and listening to lots of carols and the sort of Christmas songs which drive everyone mad when Christmas shopping in the UK. One drawback here is that Greek postal workers don't have the same urgency to deliver Christmas parcels by Christmas as the good old UK Post Office. Christmas is just another Church festival to them so all our Christmas packages were still “somewhere else” until well after Christmas and some have still not made it. Primed by the family in the UK and NZ who had made a special effort to post things in good time, I toured all the courier and post offices locally to see if any were lurking behind desks somewhere, but no joy. On the 30^th December, this lovely garland turned up from New Zealand in cut out and glue together form, which we set about immediately. It did our hearts good.

After a couple of years of flunking off (or being otherwise occupied), it was our turn to host Christmas lunch. This is quite an enterprise for 10 in the UK, but serving up Turkey and all the trimmings in Crete is anything but simple and needs organisation. Things like stuffing, gravy mix, sausage meat, custard powder, mincemeat, shortcrust pastry and ground ginger, parsnips and brussels sprouts, for instance are not readily available and have to be ordered from a UK shop (fairly distant) or brought back from the UK in bulging suitcases along with the teabags and marmite. As for crackers … a lovely friend arranged for the delivery of these via a UK to Crete van delivery. Therefore the build up to the festive meal was a bit frenetic in the making of mincemeat, Christmas puddings and pies all done from scratch without the option of Tescos, if all the culinary arrangements went astray. The vegetables came back in my suitcase and were blanched and frozen late at night on my return. My pastry has always been suspect, so I tried three dry runs with different recipes and in the end not many people touched the mincepies anyway and they would have been a feast for the birds unless Rik the Builder hadn't taken a few away for the family. We waited until Christmas eve when the Christmas lights eventually made it via Amazon and everything was a bit stressed getting the house ready and large scale veg prep.

On Christmas morning, three of us ex-pats from Skepasti danced round each other stirring sauces, making starters and heating gravy a good while before the other guests arrived. In the end, the feast itself cooked well in spite of the power going on and off all morning and no means of keeping 10 plates warm simultaneously or everything in the oven at once. However, the Crozier Christmas pudding which had been steaming in the slow cooker upstairs turned out beautifully without a trace of suet available – thanks to the NZ Emunds-Sure-to-Rise-Cookbook recipe!

K and I had a duvet day on Boxing Day to recover. We will think about a completely different menu if we do it again – more buffet style and less of the roast dinner - as we were on our knees.

Since Christmas day, the village has been very quiet. I crept out on Christmas eve with a small gift for each of the little children in the immediate neighbourhood and left an enormous tray of Thornton Chocolates for our lovely friend Angeliki and Kostas at the little kafeneon as “English chocolates are her favourite”! True to form, Kostas appeared half an hour later with dozens of eggs and an enormous bag of oranges from his garden and we are struggling to think how to use them all up as Ma Crozier can't face marmalade making yet awhile … after all the kiwi fruit from before and still being on the one egg per week diet.

Clearing up after the party, we seem to have been left with a large supply of home made chutneys and marmalade brought as gifts which will need to be redistributed when we next get together along with 4 leftover crackers and a lost earring!

We were all a bit blurry by this time ...

We approach New Year simply longing for peace in the world and a time where lots of good things happen so that folk can learn to trust each other again. It would be good if all the rain would stop for a bit as well as we hear about the flooding of homes in various places and look forward to things drying out and better defences for the future.    We send our love and best wishes to you and your families for a happy, healthy and joyful New Year wherever you are.

Kalli chronia! Have a good year!

FESTIVE FORAYS

Festive greetings from the Croziers. The long intermission is because life has been hectic for the last few weeks and each day has given us a new challenge. Ma Crozier also had a lovely time in the UK to start some Christmas shopping and check on progress to the new house.

Back in Skepasti, the Mayor of the village turned up with a truck load of kiwi fruit and one crate per househould was distributed (whether you really wanted them or not). The fruit, which otherwise would have gone to landfill was on the small size, very hard and I had two or three marmalising sessions and still have to nip out each morning to see if any more of the bullets have softened a little in the porch. I managed to contrive some orange, cranberry and kiwi sauce which MIGHT be OK for Christmas lunch … I will let you know the verdict. Meanwhile, kiwi jam (looking dispiritingly like frogspawn) is now residing in the store cupboard for when we feel brave enough. The following week, a large consignment of oranges by the crate and more, larger kiwis by the crate arrived. I had a total of 3 crates of kiwis on the front porch and everyone we knew was trying to give away kiwis. Eventually I found a seasoned jam maker from a distant village to take one crate for her kitchen. I suspect that a lot of the smaller, less palatable fruit may well end up in the ground but more widely dispersed! I wonder what Archaeologists of the future would make of that!

Kiwis Galore!

Christmas Lunch will be at our house this year and local expats from UK and France have been invited. I'm feeling a little nervous about cooking a Cretan turkey on Cretan power for that number of people, but hopefully all the light and power will hang together long enough to put a meal together … Watch this space. I was slightly peeved that my ready-to-roll icing was allowed by security at Manchester airport but confiscated at Athens (where to be honest it had softened a lot) and I wished that it had been taken from me at first so I didn't carry it around all day until 40 minutes away from my destination! Such is life and the plus side is that I have found a store on the outskirts of Rethymnon which stocks everything needed to ice cakes and decorate them.

We have been to quite a number of Christmas parties already and have a few more in the diary. Last weekend was the Christmas do for “the Friends of Animals” - mostly ex-pats who have to raise money to veterinary care for all the lost and stray animals hereabouts. There is also lots happening to feed and clothe refugees and many organisations are collecting warm woollies and winter clothing so that those coming out of the sea by raft have some dry clothing available. Who would embark on such a journey unless they were absolutely desperate? I can hardly bear to contemplate why many, many small children do not make it alive - so many parents are totally traumatised on their arrival on many counts.

We have been reading about horrendous flooding in the North of the UK and hoping that things are better and warm homes have been found for all the flood victims before Christmas. I can't imagine anything worse inside your home than flood water, especially if this is not the first time it has happened. By some reverse trick of weather patterns, Kriti has been wallowing in sunshine and warmish day temperatures for longer than usual. Then after a week of overcast skies, the dark brooding clouds over Mount Psiloritis parted at last and revealed the gleaming white snowy slopes glistening in the sunshine. The nights are cold though and I need pyjamas, dressing gown, hat, gloves and socks to keep warm. Somebody please tell David Cameron that it gets very cold in Mediterranean countries too and our log pile is diminishing fast. We paid National Insurance for as long as everyone else and are every bit in need of cold weather fuel allowance!

Cute donkeys knitted at Makers to raise funds for the Donkey Sanctuary

Tomorrow is the last Makers gathering, apart from a Christmas meal, before the holidays. We are all taking bags of warm things to contribute to a school collection in Rethymnon. I have also to find some wrapping paper because this is the most difficult item to track down in Greece. Much of the contents of our turkey dinner will have been brought over from England or bought in the UK store which is a bit of a distance away. Our local village shop (jokingly referred to as Sainsburys) is looking a bit short of rations these days and Kostas, the proprietor, has stopped stocking cigarettes and many other items since times are so hard for the villagers and the shop is suffering. All these good souls are trying to exist on what they can grow on their veggie patches, bread and eggs. They all look cheerful, though and keep busy.

Panormo - outside the Post Office

I hear sounds of step ladders and struggling outside while K contemplates putting Christmas lights in the tree outside. Fare thee well for now – I think I am needed!