Christmas scribbles

My writing muse has been working elsewhere this week, but I felt like it was about time for a new blog post. So, a few quick Christmassy scribbles to keep you entertained.

1. I have not had a mince pie yet. There is a mincemeat samosa recipe that I'd like to try, but we have been drowning in cake recently because we hosted a Christmas social and everyone brought ridiculously calorific and amazingly huge cakes from Costco and refused to take them home. This is some kind of conspiracy.

2. We have, however, had Christmas cupcakes, decorated by Toby. He had a great time doing them. Meanwhile his little brother demolished an entire cupcake and tipped washing powder all over the floor.

3. On a related note, putting up the tree feels like the sort of thing that should be a family activity, but trying to deal with two excited boys tying the lights in knots and throwing baubles at my head tends to make me stressed very quickly. Once we had the tree sorted, I waited until they were in bed and spent a lovely peaceful evening arranging the rest of the decorations.

4. Graham's mum knitted us a lovely nativity set which has been carefully arranged on our fireplace. Theo, however, is convinced that baby Jesus' manger should be standing on end and tucked away behind Mary. We keep trying to tell him that Jesus is actually the main character.

5. Toby had his first school nativity play this week. He was one of the wise men, resplendent in a purple cape and - bizarrely - sunglasses. One of the lines of the song was, "We're the guys with the camels, we're the guys with the shades" and if you have any idea why, you are very welcome to enlighten me.

6. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and ice a Christmas cake.

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