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creating Christmas * day 5

The Christmas cake

I hate to rush myself but I do need to get a move on.  Having spent every day this week out and about for one event / appointment or another I need a day at home to gather my thoughts and stop them swirling around in my head.

And a bit of a tidy up in the house would be good – the vac has not been out of the cupboard all week.

So today is a day at home making the Christmas cake.  It is undoubtedly one of my favourite tasks for the wonderful aromas alone; the unmistakable smell of Christmas circulating the house.  I shouldn’t be, but I am nervous about the cake this year, although it is very much a tried and tested recipe the oven times in my new oven are far from tested and remain rather trying.   I can’t quite get the temperature or time right and last year it was slightly underdone.  DH ate it anyway, (he wouldn’t miss a chance for fruit cake) but I dismissed the idea of giving any to anyone else.

My recipe was, I think, from a Good Housekeeping Christmas magazine…a long time ago.  It is virtually organic; virtually, because the cloves and mixed spice in the ingredients list are hard to find (if they actually exist organically). 

I do prefer organically grown food even though it is hard on the budget, Sainsbury’s have a good range but some things have recently disappeared like their organic oranges so an ordinary one had to suffice.  I began using this recipe because it has chopped apricots instead of candied peel (of which none of us are a fan).

DH always helps me parcel it up now with brown paper and string – he was once a scout so can do a suitable knot. I make a dip in the middle to stop it rising too much and keep the top flat. So into the oven for a few hours and then the hard bit of deciding if it is done or not, I will err on the side of caution this year and go for slightly over done rather than underdone.

Once out of the oven and cooled it will be parcelled up and fed rather erratically, as in when I remember with a little tipple of brandy.  At some point I will marzipan the top (remembering the apricot jam this year to avoid a dash to the co-op for some), and then top it with some ready roll white icing.  I don’t bother with the sides as I hide everything under one of those traditional old fashioned cake frills.

It will be ready then for the grandchildren to put the decorations on, most likely when we are all together on Christmas Eve. We use the same little figures each year but I bought a new Santa this year as the old one looked a bit faded. I expect all four of them will join in this year – so that will be fun. Master Freddie had to decorate it all by himself last year as the other grandchildren were unwell and stayed at home.

Thank you Joy for your lovely comment and poem on my post Advent day 2 for anyone who didn’t see the comment here is the lovely little poem by Eleanor Farjeon, it will be copied into my journal for me to look back on.

How will you your Christmas keep?
Feasting, fasting or asleep?
Will you laugh or will you pray,
Or will you forget the day?

Be it kept with joy or pray’r,
Keep of either some to spare;
Whatsoever brings the day,
Do not keep but give away.

Have a lovely day everyone, back soon. X

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creating Christmas * day 4

The Christmas music

We had a rather lovely, but oh so tiring, day yesterday.

We had plans to venture down the M1 a little way to Meadowhall…our friendly out of town shopping mall – or as in my case not so friendly.  I find the noise of these places resembles something akin to being in an echoing submarine, which is an unlikely comparison given that I have never been in a submarine but my imagination is convinced it would be the same.

It was quite festive though.  Larger than life teddy bears singing Christmas songs (the grandchildren would have been delighted), lots of dangling, glittery décor hanging like chandeliers above us and an abundance of Christmas goodies…far more than are really good for the planet.

I came home clutching a rather sweet little carrier bag from one of my favourite shops The White Company containing two silver stars, one for each daughter. 

I usually give them angels, balanced on the top of their stockings but for some reason angels are seemingly in short supply this year so the stars are on standby just in case.  Though, as angels often do I am sure one (hopefully two) will appear in time.

We had a look in the Flying Tiger for anything that caught my eye but apart from a string of copper wired lights and some ‘handy’ Christmas bags I could not be tempted.  I wasn’t tempted either in Lakeland or Waterstones and DH who is not known for his love of shopping was obviously getting a little jittery so we left, went round to Ikea for our free tea and coffee and came home.

I am in the stage of gathering.  I have a little heap of foliage I collected in my greenhouse ready for the wreath making day and a run off a few sheets of my printed linocuts for the card making day.  Waiting in the kitchen is the marinated fruit to make my cake today and weather permitting DH will be festooning the tree in our front garden with a string of lights.  So nothing to show yet and the reason I am leaving you with a little offering of some festive music for Advent day 4.

Carols and music is so much a part of Christmas; I miss the Carol singing the old way going around the streets in the village with our lanterns, Carol sheets and a few frozen fngers but with the promise of a warm mince pie and a hot drink at the end.  Now our village has decided to move with the times and offers Carols in the Park and Carols in the pub.  Somehow through other commitments I missed both events!

I mention music today as I will most definitely be beating my Christmas cake mixture to the sound of Carols at Christmas – all my favourites on one CD…turned way up high whilst DH is outside so I can join in and sing quite off key and no-one will know.

This music is unfortunately not on my CD and is a favourite.  Do have a listen.

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creating Christmas * day 3

The Family Newsletter

I must admit I do like to receive a yearly update from our friends and family, the ones that we don’t see very often. It is a great way to keep in touch. I find they all differ in their content…some are more serious and some quite funny others tell of their travels, holidays, and achievements and for others they can express a good or difficult year.

I find it is good to be able to join in and congratulate, sympathise or make a mental note to make contact more frequently if anyone seems to be struggling with their life through illness or just a bad patch. We all need support at sometime in our lives.

There are some surprises too like the time I found out my cousin who I see very little of, save for major birthdays and funerals, makes the most wonderful patchwork quilts!

I have sent and received them for many years now. At one time I had to handwrite each one, sometimes onto airmail paper – (those lovely printed Christmas ones) and it took a while though they would probably be much shorter back then. Now I write everything into a word document, add a few pictures and send it by email. My blog is such a useful tool to run off a quick newsletter as I can reuse a few photos and see in an instant what we were doing in any given month.

I am not sure if the newsletter, like postcards, is a dying custom or even a custom at all. At one time I would write letters throughout the year (remember them?) to friends and family who lived away, so I suppose this is the equivalent of many letters through the year but all at once.

I wonder how many people reading this send a family newsletter or receive one?

Sorry I was a little late posting this today – it has been a rush so excuse any garbled bits and spelling etc. Mum rang me just after midnight last night thinking I had rung her disturbing me from my slumbers…so a sleepless night afterwards.

Back tomorrow X

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creating Christmas * day 2

The Joy of Giving

This is quite an appropriate time to talk about giving and it is done in memory of my dear friend K. It was her funeral yesterday and a lovely celebration of her life.

No-one could have had a better friend; even with the 20 year age gap we got on so well. What made K so special was that she was a true giver, she never expected anything from me and she would ring just to see how I was (ironic when she was so ill herself). She was always there with a warm welcome and ready to give you a cup of tea and piece of cake whenever you called. She had an equally wonderful way of saying goodbye as you left with a hug, a lot of thank yous for calling and then would wave you off from her steps outside her door, never going inside until you were out of sight. She made you feel special.

Knowing she was terminally ill and not much time left she had organised her funeral in advance and started to get her affairs in order to lessen the burden on her family afterwards. One of the most touching things, and I have a tear or two as I write this, was that the day before she became unresponsive she had made her daughter promise to get the Christmas present she had intended to get for me and it sits in the envelope beside me with a card.

Her daughter said it is a little thank you for the help we gave her since her partner died last year. DH and I gladly helped her. Her eldest son gave a fitting tribute and she had left little individual thank you messages to be read out acknowledging each of her children and her wider family for their love, help and support that they had given her throughout this difficult year. How lovely was that. She gave her love and appreciation to everyone, even at the very end of her life.

I am missing her so much….just the little things like when one of her favourite programs comes on the TV ( we both had a love of watching dear Robbie on his canal boat expeditions) or when I am in Sainsbury’s and I don’t bump into her halfway down an aisle all the way round the store, or like yesterday when we called at the local garden centre and I saw the poster for their Afternoon Tea which K and I thoroughly enjoyed for Christmas and her birthday.

So in memory of K I gave to the charity of her choice the Scottish Air Ambulance Endowment Fund. She was always grateful for their help when she needed it on holiday in Scotland and had to be flown to a hospital in an emergency.

As readers will know in past years I always try and make a few items for the craft stall at the coffee morning in our local church it is largely a gift of time on my part making something that will sell without spending a great deal on materials. This year I made these little bags of Christmas. The transfers for the candles, the bags, the chocolates and the oranges were quite inexpensive and all I had to buy, the rest of the bits and pieces including the candles I already had in my Christmas stash waiting to be made into something sellable.

It was a busy morning despite the wet weather and I was able to catch up with old friends over a cup of tea and a cake. They managed to raise £5,000 for the Crisis charity who will make sure as many homeless people as possible have a Christmas dinner on Christmas day.

Giving is so important and as K showed everyone by her actions, giving is not just about giving money. So although I give to my favourite charities at Christmas before I embark on my Christmas shopping I will take a leaf out of K’s book and give in other small ways too with a welcoming guesture like she would….a smile, a few words an acknowledgement to anyone that passes by.

Christmas is for giving…so like my friend I will give joyously from the heart. X