I have so much to write about but Flickr won’t let me load up any photos

Hopefully this will be resolved soon….

Yay! I managed to sort it out so I’ll get on with posting some backdated entries over the next couple of days

In the meantime, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Here is yet another reason why I have the best husband in the world, because look at what arrived whilst we were out for the day…

I unpacked…

I unwrapped…

And inside…

Was Eliza Rose!

(pardon my lack of makeup, but this was far too exciting for any vanity! )

Only afterwards did I run to make myself presentable before heading out for the night with some very dear schoolfriends. I’ve known these girls since I was 11, and we’re all still amazingly close. It’s sad these days that we don’t get together so often as we’re all scattered around the country now, actually make that the globe, but one thing we always do is get together at Christmas. I would not miss it for the world. We’re expanding in numbers now too

Of course afterwards we dashed back home so that I could attend to my own little expanding brood

On Boxing Day, I took DrMrNin on one of my favourite walks. It was the same one that I went on with Mutti and Malph back in October, when the leaves were all turning and the earth beneath was covered with mushrooms. I was intrigued to find out if there might have been a gathering at the stone circles during the Winter Solstice, but there were no signs.

Whilst we were out, Mutti made a lovely frozen lemon meringue cake from dollops of lemon curd and creme fraiche mixed with crumbled meringue on a bed of sliced shop-bought madeira cake. Simple, yet very effective

It is a family tradition that we start Christmas morning by eating home-made mincemeat strudel. I have made this every year since I was about 10. It’s very delicious, but then being the baker I am of course very biased Afterwards I made a nut roast for myself and Malph as the turkey baked to a glossy brown roast in the oven. It was a very relaxing day, with lots of food and family time.

The pictures more or less speak for themselves so I will let them do that (or if you want actual words, click on each picture to read its description on flickr).

Merry Christmas everyone!