So, back to work and back to reality it is this week!
Although at the moment our tree is still up- we put it up late as I wasn’t really very well, and because we were away we have not had a lot of time to enjoy it.
I love putting the lights on and lighting candles.
It just seems so cosy. I think this evening may be my last chance. We do normally put it away before I go back to work, but we were out yesterday evening so decided to delay it a bit.
Last week I finally got around to decorating our Christmas cakes. I had not even put marzipan on them because I didn’t think anyone would want me coughing all over it! The robin one was for my parents. We took it around on Saturday as we had a belated Christmas celebration with my parents, Auntie and cousin. We do a sort of secret santa game thing, with a theme, and I was very excited to bring home nuts and a nut cracker- I have always wanted one!
Then a big gingerbread man cake for Andy’s family, and one for us. We took theirs around on Sunday- better late than never! (The holly leaves were bought decorations- I could not do anything that fiddly).
This year there was a bit of a theme to my presents- tea and chocolate being the main ones!
I am especially loving that huge mug- I might have to have a hot chocolate and one of the vegan marshmallows floating on top. The Whittards Baked Apple tea is just amazing- it has almonds and hazelnut brittle in there as well as dried apple pieces and is just delicious.
We did take a few Christmas goodies with us- I bought the gingerbread snowman at the Pret at the airport as I was getting a peppermint tea. The Hotel Chocolat gingerbread men are lovely, and the M&S fruit/ nut mix was so good too- almonds with salted caramel coating, milk chocolate brazils, and clementine-flavoured cranberries coated in dark chocolate. Very festive indeed!
I have been curing my January blues (not that I really have that) with a spot of sale shopping. The picture came out very badly, but Sports Direct (I don’t normally shop with them as I had trouble once with a refund) had super super cheap Karrimor running tights- £7 a pair, so I got black ones with yellow bits, some purple ones and some blue ones.
I even tried the blue ones out on a run on Sunday and was very pleased to notice that they matched my nail polish perfectly!
Are all your decorations away now?
We still have our Christmas decorations up. It is just a bit depressing now, but to be honest we are both too lazy to take them down.
Usually it would be the 6th, but that is my husband’s birthday, so that wouldn’t be a very fun birthday activity for him.
No that’s no fun for him!
Lots of tea and chocolate sounds like the perfect bundle of gifts. 🙂
We still have our decorations up and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re still going to be up at the weekend. I have to wait until Alfie can get in the attic to get all the packaging down, but to be honest I quite like having them up for a bit longer.
Yes- Andy has to get the boxes out of the attic so that’s my excuse!
Love the matching colours! All our decorations came down at the weekend. The cats are most disappointed.
Ha ha!
Yes I liked that the colours matched- don’t think I could do it with any other tights though.
Sports Direct are…not my favourite chain of shops. I’ll leave it at that, and add that I’ve had so much trouble with their refund policy that I won’t go there ever again. I’m so pleased that you picked up a bargain though, and that nail colour is just gorgeous.
We never had any decorations to start with, but everyone seemed to be out and about taking theirs down today and yesterday. I’m sure we’ll only have to wait until September before some start appearing again 😉
Yep, that’s how I would put it too. I went in to look at the sizing, because I had seen some online, but they were so cheap that I could not really justify spending more elsewhere.
Your cakes look fantastic Maria! The robins are so sweet but the gingerbread people are great too.
Fab deal on the running tights, I’m not a sports direct fan either but they do have some bargains in the sales!
Love the nail polish, hope you’re feeling better!
Thanks- I had made the robin ones before and my parents liked it, so decided to go for that again.
I do love the look of your cakes. I spotted them on Facebook earlier in the week and thought how cute they were.
We took our decorations down late last night but the house looks so bare now. 🙁
We took the cards down and everywhere seems tidier, but I do like the tree as ours is a slim one so doesn’t take up too much space.
SALTED CARAMEL COATED ALMONDS?! They sound absolutely lethal! But absolutely divine!
The gingerbread cake sounds lovely too – do you have a recipe? Ben and me love gingerbready things. You’re cake decorations look amazing as usual (ours was such a decoration fail hehe, just bought some little snowmen and haphazardly put them on top!)
You always match so well with your outfits and nails hehe. I need to paint my nails more often. It’s just such a faff.
Yes, those almonds were amazing!
Ah, the gingerbread man cake is a fruit cake, but with gingerbread men decorating it. But a lovely gingerbread cake recipe is http://ohsheglows.com/2010/10/02/pumpkin-gingerbread-with-spiced-buttercream/ this one. You could sub apple sauce for the pumpkin, and I often use eggs instead of the chia seeds and water.
Your cake looked really good- I love how you made the royal icing go in peaks- I have never had much success with royal icing.
I tend to paint my nails and leave it on for a week, so they will match something at some point in the week!
i think it was march when i took down my decorations last year haha
We did it last night in the end, but according to QI they can stay up until February 🙂
We took our tree down on Sunday which was quite sad. We were away for 10 days over Christmas so got it early so we could enjoy it, wish we could have kept it for longer though! It looks so bare now!
I wanted to put ours up earlier as we were away too, but I was too ill. Ah well, I look forward to next year 🙂
Haha love that you got so much tea for Christmas! I did too! I think it’s great though, you can never have too much tea, I say! Lx
I agree! My friends know me so well 🙂