The trick of the loaves and fishes at Christmas

Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Twas the night before Christmas when the phone call came. The Dublin domiciled sister was in an almighty panic. She and her husband were to go to his brother for Christmas dinner in Dublin. The plan was to spend it with their patriarch, a fit 94-year-old.

The news came on Christmas Eve that my brother-in-law’s niece had to isolate and await a test after coming into contact with a positive Covid case.

So there was no room at the inn for the three amigos – she, he and their recently acquired Covid pup Scan.

“Please can we come for Christmas, we don’t want to stay here on our own,” my sister wailed. “The oven is broken and there’s no turkey to be had anywhere in Dublin.”

I already had nine people squeezed around the table – within the rules as it was two households joining ours.

We had all had our vaccines and boosters. But we were still worried about our dicky hearted 75-year-old dad.

The sister and hubby had been to the Canaries for a week, only arriving home in the days before Christmas. But they had been tested before they left Gran Canaria and then isolated on their return taking antigen tests to ensure they remained virus-free. So that side of it was not the problem.

And they were our third household. So that was still keeping the maximum number of households to four.

My worry was how to stretch the turkey and ham for nine to 12? And how to physically fit 12 in my tiny kitchen/dining table?

It’s a dilemma that I’m sure was faced up and down the country. How do you say no to family at Christmas?

On Christmas morning, the garlic baguettes were doubled to four, the number of prawns to be shelled quadrupled after an emergency trip to the freezer of Lidl and the amount of root vegetables to be peeled grew to a mountain.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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