Christmas Morning

Smoked Salmon and Eggs... That is the special family breakfast in our house! Christmas and Easter, when we’re sitting down together, it’s got to be Smoked Salmon and Eggs.

But this meal is more special to me than the other members of my family realise. Picture it, me 6 years old about to undertake my first end of year exams at school. They were going to last a week and they would be taking place in the school hall/canteen/gymnasium.

On day one of this momentous milestone, my lovely Mum asked me what I wanted for breakfast… I thought for a moment and replied “Brain food!”

“Hmm,” said Mum rummaging around in the fridge, “How about this?” she said triumphantly holding up a packet of Smoked Salmon.

We’d always had Smoked Salmon on special occasions, and that day I felt like a very special little girl as I devoured my Smoked Salmon and scrambled eggs on toast. I passed all my exams with flying colours, and that was the start of ten years of special exam breakfasts. From my SATS to my GCSEs and A Levels, all of them began with Smoked Salmon and Scrambled eggs on toast. Even now, if I have something at work which requires me to think or learn, its got to be Mum’s Brain Food Breakfast

It tasted as good today as it ever did, although a little different than it used to be. We have brown toast now instead of white and no salt or cream in the eggs, we’re all a bit older and wiser. I can still picture the dining room with its Anaglypta wallpaper and the little cream wall-mounted TV that Dad eventually painted black with emulsion.

Of course later will come Turkey and all the trimmings with the extended family, wine, nibbles and trifle. But for now, at this early hour, I’ll digest my Smoked Salmon and Scrambled eggs and wish you well.

Merry Christmas and God Bless