Merry Christmas Everyone!

I can't believe that I have not posted anything new on here since the end of November! I remember thinking that there were so many cool Christmassy things I could be posting in December and here I am, Christmas is over and not a single post. December did rather get away from me and in the last week I have been battling bacterial tonsillitis for the second time this year and am only just on the mend. However, now that Christmas Dinner is cooked and eaten, my dear husband has washed all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen and our little one is in bed (and asleep, hurrah!), I have a moment to write.

Being away from family is always hard but I feel it especially at Christmas. When I was growing up, Christmas was always a wonderful time. There was presents to buy and wrap, lots of tasty Christmas cooking and of course the wonder and magic of Santa Claus/Father Christmas. So at Christmas time I always reminisce about past Christmases and those quirky, unique traditions that only your family really understands.

One thing I remember from childhood christmases was a tradition that I started, which we called "trick presents". When I was around 10 or 11 years old, I remember finding an old ping pong ball which I'd cut in half and drawn a crazy eye on, goodness knows why but there it was. I suddenly thought how funny it would be if I wrapped it up and put it in the bottom of my brother's christmas stocking. Christmas day dawned bright and early and I could hardly wait to get up and start opening presents. We had the tradition of only one person opening one present at a time, so sometimes present opening could last for ages. My brother always liked to have the last present so he used to hide one to bring out truimphantly when everyone else had opened all theirs. Imagine my delight that year,when he saved the ridiculous eyeball present till last. His face when he opened it was priceless and so a tradition was born.

The next year in addition to our usual presents were a hilarious variety of "trick presents". My brother wrapped up a block of wood for me, my sister recieved a book she

had studied at school and absolutely despised and there were rocks, empty boxes and the list goes on.

This year I decided to go back to the roots of this tradition and found a brilliant present for my brother, a bag of fake plastic eyeballs!

Apparently they went down a treat with his kids!

So, on that note I shall finish up here with a recipe for gingerbread of which I made several batches of this year as it was just so easy and also my daughter had a great time rolling it out and using the cookie cutters and then decorating with copious amounts of icing and sprinkles.

Gingerbread Men

200g Plain Flour

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp ground ginger

75g soft, brown sugar

75g butter

3 Tbsp golden syrup

1.Preheat oven to 170 C and grease a baking tray

2. Place flour, bicarb soda and ginger in a bowl

3. Warm sugar, fat and syrup together and add to dry ingredients. Mix well and knead lightly to form a smooth dough.

4. Roll out to a thickness of about 2.5mm and cut out using cookie cutters.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool slightly then lift carefully onto a wire rack.