Frost

It was a bit of a frosty start to the day today, and again the car was warning me that that there was a danger of ice. So this seemed a good photo for today (although the day it was taken much considerably colder!):

It warmed up a bit and got wetter as the day went on, but fortunately the rain held off for this evening's Christmas market/fair in Wendover.  It wasn't actually much of a shopping opportunity, but it all helps to build the festive spirit and there was a lovely happy atmosphere.

Card Making

Today's image is one of the cards I made the year our theme was The Snowman.

This year's cards are almost all made, although a few still need inserts and a couple need some finishing touches.

I need to settle down to some letter writing ...

Advent Images

The first section of the Advent Candle is now burning and this morning at work we opened the first door of the office advent calendar.

It isn't actually a new calendar; it is the one that was a gift from the grandmother of a member of staff a year or so ago and which we shut in January and have brought out again… Yes, we could have a new one, but this one is now "team tradition"!

Last month I had the idea of posting a photo for each day from 1st to 24th December, together with any relevant notes of my Advent and Christmas preparations.  Being realistic, I can see that I'm likely to run into difficulties with making it a daily task unless I queue things up as drafts and get the posting semi-automated - which seems a little too mechanical.

However, as there were Christmas Fairs and events all over the country this weekend I will at least make a start with this image from an event last year:

Advent Sunday

The clock is running!

The first candle on the advent wreath has been lit and we have eaten the first mince pies of the year (taken together with a glass of Madeira!). This year I've started with the Heston spiced ones...

Advent Sunday is also the day when I aim to finish making my Christmas cards and work out who will be receiving which card.  In many cases they are made with the recipient in mind, but in others I find I have an image I really like and so make several variations and leave it to now to decide who will have which.

The other main activity for today has been to make sure that the remaining tasks are in the diary with the days I want to have achieved them.

Remember to make a wish for each mince pie you eat between now and Christmas Day!

The Start of Winter

This morning did feel wintery.

For the first time this year I had to scrape the ice from my windscreen and the car spent the entire journey telling me that there was a "danger of ice".  It was however, a beautiful journey.  I set off as the sun was rising and drove into a sky of ice blue criss-crossed by pink tinged vapour trails.

Later in my journey I was in a traffic queue behind a lorry carrying Christmas Trees.

The Christmas preparation theme continued at lunchtime when I was out to buy a sandwich and came back with a Heston Hidden Clementine Christmas Pudding … That is the key thing for me from now until the last few days before Christmas; buy things as and when you see them and cross them off on The List.

Stir Up Sunday

Today is Stir Up Sunday; the traditional day for making the Christmas Pudding.

In my family it is, by tradition, the day when preparations for Christmas begin in earnest. The Christmas cake would have been made either the week before or that weekend (with everyone having a stir of the mixture and making a wish), advent candles and calendars would be bought and the food list be written up.

So in keeping with tradition, I have now started buying the non-perishable food.  The ginger marmalade is in the cupboard, together with the crackers and the chocolate biscuits. I have my advent candle ready and waiting for next weekend and the invitations to the Sleigh-Run Dinner are ready to go out.

It is also the weekend after Beaujolais Nouveau comes in (on the third Thursday of November). While this isn't the big event it used to be, it is still worth celebrating - so we did!

Food For Thought

As I have mentioned before, the theme this Christmas is 'Christmas Puddings' and this weekend, inspired by finding some pudding cup cake toppers in Hobbycraft,  our minds turned to food.  What can we do to reproduce puddings in different ways?

There are always cupcakes using the toppers, but there are other ways of using them (especially as we're not really cup cake people because they tend to be so sweet).  We thought first of shortbread rounds with the toppers in the centre. Okay, the colour is wrong, but it plays into the theme and we are very much a shortbread family!

What about chocolate crispy cakes with, placed on top, a dollop of white icing with green holly leaf shapes and red circles, if we've already used the toppers?

I'm also keen to go with a Chocolate Orange unwrapped and with a topping of white icing and the green leaves and red berries.

Then, today in Tesco's I saw these:

Christmas Pudding chocolate muffins!  The fact that they were reduced made them irresistible …