I have to say that 2017 was pretty full on, in more ways than one. Looking back at 2017 now I can see a little more clearly the things accomplished, the goals missed and the lessons learned. Whilst a total mixed bag of emotions and events, there were things I would love to do again and things I am more than happy to be leaving in the past!
I am the weirdo who likes to have everything laid out ready over Christmas. I even design a Christmas menu and print it out, and this year it even got laminated! I know, it’s quite sad sounding but I absolutely love doing it. And secretly I think everyone else likes it too.
So here is our Christmas Day menu, you may find inspiration from it or not, you may just be nosey (like me) and want to see what we will be eating, regardless enjoy!
Many moons ago my Mum gave me the Delia Smith Complete Cookery Course. Mainly because she was fed up with me pinching her copy! Regardless the book contains many recipes I have tried and loved for over two decades now. Gosh that’s weird to write! As I was flicking through I came across the recipe for the loveliest rich Christmas cake, and I have been making it ever since!
Our tree has a basic theme of green tree with gold and red baubles on it. Simple, with 2 sets of lights and some gold/silver bushy tinsel wrapping the centre of the tree for extra sparkle. For Phil we could leave it there and he would be happy. However we have one simple Christmas tradition that has caused our tree to become the most spectacular cacophony of ornaments, leaving the theme of green, red and gold somewhat engulfed!
I make these every year and when I don’t the moaning can be heard right through until February! You may shy away from making them because they are a faff or you just don’t know what to put in them. But homemade hampers are probably the best smorgasbord gift you can give.
When Phil and I first started seeing each other, child free dates were a total luxury as we started out with 4 kids between us. After we got married we wanted to keep date nights going, even if it was just once a month, thankfully my folks were on board and we managed to stick to for the last 7 years together. Phil is a muso if I haven’t mentioned it before, and so I wanted out December date night to be really special for both of us. I booked tickets to see Handel’s Messiah at the Birmingham Symphony hall and we decided to make our Christmas date night in Birmingham that extra bit spectacular by throwing in dinner and a walk around the German market before the performance too. My Mum was having the children over night to spoil them a little too.
We have a few festive favourites to be honest, most of them films. It just isn’t Christmas without watching them all, preferably with the child whose favourite it happens to be. The best thing is they are all classics, and almost guaranteed to played on the telly at least once over the Christmas period. Although for us this isn’t necessary as we own them on DVD.
It’s the second day of #brumblogmas and today the prompt was Christmas Pudding. I’ll be honest I was a bit stumped mainly because I don’t actually like this traditional suet based steamed pudding. However I do usually end up feeling like I am one come Boxing Day, let alone New Years Day!
So I thought I’d write a post about how we plan not to end up feeling like plumptious puddings over Christmas week.
Hi, my name is Sophie, welcome to my blog. We are a happily blended family of 7 living the beautiful Worcestershire countryside. Here I will share blog posts about daily life, recipes and other various adventures we have. I hope you join us for the journey.
