Is it ok to still talk about Christmas?
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| Charlie, the only member of our extended family (on the English side) who is not publicity-shy. |
I suppose it would be alright, given that there are 12 days of Christmas so strictly speaking, the festive season is not over yet... Anyhow, I'd like to capture some wonderful memories of our 2014 Christmas so please indulge me.
After moaning about Sainsbury's bakery mince pies in my previous post, we found our 5/5 ones, from none other than Sainsbury's more homemade-look 'Taste the Difference' range!
A new variation comes to a close second of 4.5 out of 5, but as it does not contain the traditional mince meat, it does not strictly count towards the mince pie challenge. However, as far as I am concerned, tasty food is always worth noting so here is a photo for anyone else (apart from me) who is interested.
I also made our own mince pies, since it's a bit of a family tradition here to make our own gluten-free version.
The mince meat recipe varies each year as it depends on our changing taste as well as the dried fruit that I happen to have at the point of making. This year, I used a variation on the Victorian recipe found in the Victorian Christmas recipe book in this post. I think I must have got carried away since I made enough mince meat to feed the whole village,
so I used the mince meat to make a Christmas crumble (by just adding a layer of mince meat to the usual chopped apples in a normal apple crumble) and Christmas muffins (with mince meat added to the ingredients). Even so, I still two jars of mince meat left so I shall have to come up with other creative ideas to use them up this month!
We had a slight scare just prior to Christmas Day, with Tiger having a sudden high temperature two days before. I thought we might have to stay at home for Christmas so I went panic-shopping on the 24th morning to get everything I could need to cook Christmas lunch -- there's nothing like a good old mad rush to gather all the ingredients for a complete Christmas lunch! Luckily Tiger recovered by Chtistmas eve so we were able to spend the 25th with family, enjoying fantastic food and jolly company.
It was a good Christmas for us. I hope yours was wonderful too!
This post is linked up to:
1) Hip Homeschool Hop - 12/30/14
2) My Week in Review #18
3) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with Christmas and New Year's
Hwee,
ReplyDeleteIt's quite okay to continue talking about Christmas. We are celebrating past the traditional 12 days right up to the Baptism of Our Lord. More than a week more to enjoy!
I'm sorry to hear Tiger was unwell but happy he recovered in time for Christmas Day!
Thank you for your encouraging words, Sue! We were indeed close to having to have Christmas on our own but luckily we were able to spend it with family at the last minute.
DeleteWishing you a very happy and successful new year!
I'm pleased Tiger recovered soon enough to have enjoyed his Christmas with extended family. Is the dog yours? He's a beauty!
ReplyDeleteA very happy new year to you and your family Hwee.
Charlie belongs to my sister-in-law. He's adorable, isn't he? :-)
DeleteHappy New Year to all of you!
do hope it's still ok to talk about Christmas, because I posted my pics only just now! Your mince pies look very professional. And once again I do wish I liked mince, because mince crumble is such a fabulous idea! Oh and your Christmas tree looks magnificent. We left ours entirely to the children. At the end, C(11) stood back and proudly declared, "it looks like someone threw up all over Christmas!" - charming!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Tiger was ok to travel in the end. C(11) had a horrid virus but luckily we were staying home.
Happy (British) New Year!
We didn't have a tree up at home last Christmas so you're looking at my mother-in-law's Christmas tree. :-) The next Christmas (2015) I should probably put our tree up again and I'm sure Tiger would want to be in charge of putting the decorations up. If his previous effort at that is anything to go by, I'd say he's not too far off from how your children have decorated your tree. :-)
DeleteIt's weird how the virus suddenly came in December. Sorry to hear that C(11) had a terrible one around the same time but luckily she was able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas at home!
Happy New Year to you too!
It was a good Christmas for us as well. Your quest for mincemeat pie still amuses me.
ReplyDeleteGodo to know that you've had a good Christmas too, Ticia. :-) You can't underestimate how important mince pies are around our way!
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