Christmas Will Soon Be Here… 5th December 2016
And I haven’t really done very much in preparation for it. I am always a last minute Lulu when it comes to Christmas but I have been further hindered this year by falling foul of the horrible cold/flu bug that is doing the rounds. You can tell the people who haven’t had it by the unspoken ‘man-up’ expression on their faces as they watch you sneeze, cough and attempt to clear the copious amounts of mucus from your chest and back of the nose. Not only am I totally bunged-up, I have also felt quite sick and dizzy on a couple of occasions and have had the whole ‘tingly’ skin thing? I’m about ten days in to it now and it is showing no real sign of abating which is not surprising as people on social media have been saying they have had it for four weeks! I suppose the silver lining is that at least it will have gone by Christmas… won’t it?
On that subject, I have not bought or written a single Christmas card yet although I did manage to get our Christmas cake made last weekend.
Above is a picture of last year’s which tasted yummy even if I say so myself. The recipe is on my QVC blog although it may be a tad late to make it for this year. Usually I make two, one for home and one for the backstage gang at QVC, but the person for whom that tradition started left last week, after twenty-one years with the company, so I think the tradition should be laid to rest in her honour. That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
I have always been the main cook in our family, particularly when it comes to baking, so imagine my surprise and delight when our daughter, Sophie, arrived at our house for dinner with some of these little beauties.
I have attempted gingerbread men biscuits before but mine were teeth-breakingly hard. Sophie’s were crisp on the outside, buttery soft on the inside and really gingery instead of being just sweet. I love the decorations too – she always has been very arty. The rest of my family all started by biting in to the gingerbread man’s head but I started with the limbs… how do you eat yours?
I have bought a few presents but lots still to get and of course nothing is wrapped. Paperback books make great presents for avid readers and there’s still plenty of time to order from Amazon – was that a big enough hint that my books are available if you are struggling for gift ideas? It almost goes without saying that I haven’t put any Christmas decorations up but, to be honest, I usually leave it until a couple of weeks prior to the big day before I send the other half down to the shed at the bottom of the garden to retrieve the plastic containers full of lights, baubles and the like. When do you put yours up? Am I alone in leaving it late? Although is it late? I’m pretty sure that when I was a small child the decorations didn’t go up until Christmas Eve. I haven’t really felt like writing since I came down with this bug, in fact I’ve only managed one chapter of my new novel since my last blog, but I’ll pick up the pace a bit after Christmas and I’m still hopeful that I might be able to pen a website exclusive Christmas short story over the next couple of weeks, particularly after the positive response to The Shadow of Her Smile. Thanks so much for all your lovely emails and if you haven’t read it yet do give it a go by signing up to my newsletter. The story should only take around ten minutes of your time and I’d love to know what you think. Speak soon Julia x
