After the Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas Day lunch, we were not done with the Christmas celebrations because Boxing Day needed to be celebrated as well. Boxing Day is an English tradition dating back to the days of Queen Victoria. Back then the more affluent people would box up all their Christmas Day leftovers […]
Christmas Day, 2014
December 29, 2014 By 26 Comments
This year we celebrated Christmas Day at my sister, Katie’s home. Everyone was sent an email advising what they should bring and I was allocated the desserts. Yah! Because I chose to make two frozen puddings that can be made in advance and once packed into an esky they are very easy to transport. Sorted. […]
A Christmas Eve Dinner
December 26, 2014 By 35 Comments
We celebrate Christmas with my side of the family on Christmas Day and that means numbers of 20-plus so I thought we’d have a quiet family Christmas Eve dinner relaxing before the big event. So that would be five of us. Easy! But then Archie mentioned the poor plight of Cockney-Dave who Archie met while […]
A Christmas Card
December 22, 2014 By 40 Comments
Every year I send out Christmas cards that have an unfortunate family photo on the front and musings of what a wicked year it’s been, on the inside. I sent this year’s Christmas cards out almost three weeks ago and no one has received them. Who knows where they have ended up but there were […]
Balmoral Carols by Candlelight, 2014
December 21, 2014 By 25 Comments
It’s become a lovely tradition that every year on the last Saturday before Christmas, our bestest friends come together to join us at the Balmoral Carols by Candlelight. It’s an event enjoyed by families of all ages (we had all three of our children at the Carols), and also an event that’s a fantastic community […]
21 Years of Santa Photos
December 18, 2014 By 42 Comments
I’ve now been taking my children to see Santa for more than two decades. I never thought I’d spend 21 years lining up in lengthy queues with hyped-up children who couldn’t stand in line for five minutes let alone the two hours it’s often been. I thought I would share with you the interesting and […]
Foodie Secret Santa
December 17, 2014 By 25 Comments
An initiative of Claire has been to gather willing food-blogger participants together and organise a ‘Secret Santa’ where we send a gift to three food bloggers. Claire’s husband organises the draw and then sends you an email letting you know who your gift recipients are. But first I had to make something. I wanted to […]
A Christmas Dinner Party
December 16, 2014 By 34 Comments
After selling 150 Christmas trees for the Scouts I came home to get ready for a dinner party. I do like to host at least one dinner party every Christmas. We had three couples coming for dinner, my friend Jen and her husband who do a lot of entertaining, Mr Competitive and his wife, and […]
Scouts’ Christmas Trees
December 14, 2014 By 25 Comments
Alfie’s a Cub-Scout and part of what he does as a Cub is fundraise for the organisation. That’s not a taxing task as there’s actually only one fundraiser a year and it’s the sale of Christmas trees. Last year was the first year Alfie and I assisted the Scouts by standing in a prominent place […]
Christmas Trees and Christmas Cakes
December 13, 2014 By 28 Comments
Coming up is the big, tree-selling day and not wanting to be knocked over in the rush, I went down to see John the Italian greengrocer to kindly ask him to set me aside a tree. When I got there I saw he had a few scrawny and draught-affected looking trees that were knee-high to […]
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