The season for feasting

There was cake. It was none too sweet, which is how I like my fruitcake, but it had an unfortunate predisposition to crumble to bits the instant a knife was applied to it. So Fourth Uncle (who cooks) christened it "fruit crumble", Fifth Aunt (who bakes) deduced that its disintegratory nature was due to it being too well-packed with fruit and nuts, and the family picked at it anyway and consumed at least half of it in one afternoon.

There were chairs and benches, all lined up for the pretty people to come take their places for the family portrait. We had two absentees, unfortunately AWOL for the afternoon due to an unfavourable encounter with an oyster, but all six children and the one babe-in-arms (I miscounted the last time) made it and were less trouble getting in line than all the adults.

There were many shoes, because that's what happens when forty-two people converge on the same location and immediately flee into the house to escape the maddening afternoon heat.

I wish I had pictures also of the excellent turkey (don't knock Cold Storage, people) and the sweet sweet ham and the heady homemade oxtail soup, the extended family engrossed by episode after episode of The Family Guy, my mom and Ondine orchestrating the last-minute gift exchange (where some people got ragged handwritten notes that said ,"Merry Christmas" or "Better luck next time"), my five-year-old cousin "feeding" keropok (fried crackers) to the stuffed tiger on the floor or Terz chilling out with a beer after the photo shoot.

Well, I tried to take pictures of some of that, but I have a shaky hand. In lieu of that, check out what we had for dinner at X-man's last night.



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