A Special Yule

 Great company,

 fabulous desserts,

 and a proposal! 

(Aren't they cute? Now we just have to hope they'll be able to get legally married sometime soon!)

Yule 2012

I love Yule. It was the first Sabbat I ever celebrated, and it has always been my favourite. This year though was really something special.
My Pagan friends arrived early so that we could have a ritual, and a gift exchange. I wrote the ritual this year. It's only about the second time I've written one, but this came out quite well. The gifts were in lieu of Christmas presents. Giving Christmas presents to Pagans has always felt weird, and while this doesn't actually reduce our costs, it does redistribute them to a different part of the year. I received Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon, and some gorgeous oils and sugars and things for the kitchen.
Our other guests arrived once night had started to fall, bringing with them an incredible set of dishes to share. Our menu:
Nibbles: Kabana, Camembert and crackers
Entrée: Pea and ham soup, beetroot and feta salad
Main: Lamb massaman curry, chicken and mango curry, vegetarian chilli with corn chips, coconut rice
Dessert: Pear cake, berry muffins, chocolate tart, chocolate mousse (above), home made vanilla ice cream, pure cream.
Mulled wine
The mousse was Andrew's contribution, though as he was trying to make both the dark and white mousses at once, I gave him a hand with some beating and folding and layering. I only made the ice cream!
The company was the real highlight though. Along with all the regulars, there were a few people who haven't been in a while, and one new guest. Everyone fitted together so well, and there were times I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. I can't wait until next year!

Preparations for Yule

Yule has come and gone for another year, and sadly, I forgot to take any photos of a wonderful night. I did, however, manage to take photos of the invitations. I love to send out formal invitations to events as I think it's more exciting to receive something in your letter box than your email. Sadly, this year, some took the long way through our postal system. Hopefully, next year will be better.

Yule Weekend

Well, I had a lovely weekend. The house was cleaned and set up in plenty of time, as was I. I had a slight issue with the icecream - I decided to make white chocolate (as well as dark chocolate) but Andrew brought home 'white cooking compound'! I wasn't game to use it, but fortunately Dad was out at the time, so I got him to pick up a block of real white chocolate. This did, however, mean that it got made a little later than I would have liked.
The food was gorgeous, and it was wonderful to see my friends - several of whom I had not seen in almost a year! I also love seeing all my friends get on so well. We had soup and mini quiches for entree, and a massive main of lasagne, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, gluten free pasta bake, roast veggies, potato bake, chili con carne, and corn on the cob. Unfortunately, the lasagne wasn't ready when everything else was, so very little got eaten. Dessert consisted of a gorgeous chocolate ripple Yule log, sticky date pudding, sponge cake (gluten free), and my icecreams. Yum!
Four of my friends stayed overnight. I love being able to allow them to do this. I had taken photos of how beautiful one of the beds looked, but my father appears to have deleted it for reasons which are unknown to me since they were the only shots on the card.
Sunday morning, I was up at 8:30am (not my choice after going to bed at 3am, but I couldn't breathe well enough to sleep) well before anyone else, but this meant I was able to potter around and clean up at my own pace. Sad to say it, but it was really nice to not have Mum there to hassle me (she spent the night with a friend on Phillip Island) about cleaning up as she usually does.
Once I had cleaned up, showered and eaten breakfast, it was time to get ready for the afternoon's UnderCoverWear party. This meant baking. I made a batch of my chocolate chip cookies - I'm known for these amongst my friends - as well as two batches of scones. One of the batches was an experiment in gluten free for my friend, Jacq, who has an intolerance. They weren't perfect because I got impatient, but certainly edible, and Jacq was thrilled to be able to eat scones again.
The party started at 2:30. My best friend, Jill, returned (and her fiance, Jim, came to play with Andrew) and Andrew's Mum came up, bringing our beautiful 2.5 year old niece, Alice. Our lovely consultant, Chris, was wonderful as always. I must confess that my ideals of putting dips in nice bowls, and crackers on plates fell by the wayside, and the nibblies I had in the freezer stayed there, but no one seemed to mind.
The day ended with a dinner of leftover lasagne with Jill and Jimmy, and Lettisia (Tish) and her lovely new guy, Jason. A lovely way to end a lovely weekend and I went to bed tired, but happy.


The fireplace filled with candles. We couldn't have a real fire, because the hearth is being redone, which was disappointing, but this was pretty. I was impressed with how well they burned too, since I paid $16 for the lot at Target!

Us all sitting down for our entrees

Mini quiches, with and without gluten, candles and sword (I don't know what it's doing there either, though it is mine, but it looks good though, doesn't it?)

The chocolate ripple Yule log. Such a simple idea, but so effective and so tasty