So Lil'Sis had this truly brilliant idea for Christmas this year.
The men of the family (along with Bruvinlaw's dessert-loving Dad,as his parents are coming North for Christmas this year) will be in charge of all the catering on Christmas Day. The menu, the shopping and the cooking.
Yes, in typical Kiwi (with a token English) bloke fashion, Christmas Day for the menfolk means playing with the kids' new toys, drinking a lot, eating a lot, being extremely competitive over the annual game of petanque and doing the dishes when the food's over and done with.
Meanwhile, the women toil over horse dovers, salads, trifle, turkey and serving it all up at the same time. In order to get to this point, lists are delegated by Mum mid-December (after the menu is decided on) and somebody (usually me) has to hit the supermarket for two trolleys' worth of food with said-list in hand. Stress levels, needless say, can get rather high.
But enough is enough! It ain't fair! And this is 2009 not 1956! Both Mum and I work full-time and Lil'Sis works almost full-time. Dad's retired, the Other Harf is "between jobs" and Bruvinlaw works a three day week. Desset Dad is long-retired, but we suspect his wife may have a large influence in what his input will be.
All in all, plenty of time to plan everything to a T.
And there will not be one single word of complaint or offering of "advice" from any of the women in attendance.
It's not only a promise, it's a guarantee.
Your xmas day sounds like mine, we're not travelling (yahoo) and we're having lunch at our place complete with trifle, chocolate logs, cold meat, seafood - the works!