Hello!
We had a very cosy Christmas Eve. We had a nice walk in the afternoon and then put up some decorations. Last minute much? The moose candle holder is my favourite- a few years ago we went to Copenhagen for the weekend as our Christmas present, and that was the one thing we brought home with us. The Christmas tree is a tealight holder but it was not lit when I took the picture.
After a nice tea of bread, cheese (I had some Wensleydale and cranberry cheese), salad, grapes and clementines we had a slice of Christmas cake too. Well I did want to try it before we gave the other ones away, for quality control purposes, of course.
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and Boxing day too. I did, and I will ramble on about that later. But first, last week I posted about a giveaway where one lucky person could win a Bondi Band.
Well, I put all the names into a pot, gave them a big shake, and then chose one (yes, I am super old skool!), and the winner is:
Marijke who wanted the “One more Mile” one. So, email me your address and I will post it off to you! How exciting! Plus it made the decision for me as I loved them both, so once I am out running again I will get to review the Run one. 🙂
And now onto Christmas. I was getting excited about giving out the hampers:
The cake boxes were so huge they took up most of the hampers! There was also coffee, apple and mango jam, spiced nuts, Christmas pudding fudge and chocolate coated gingerbread cookies.
Plus I was so excited to give me Dad his tile for the garden.
He loved it so much! He actually said it was far too nice to put in the garden and is going to see if he can fix it to the front of their house. 🙂
We spent most of the day at Andy’s parents’ house (my parents were back from holiday late on Christmas eve and are heading away tomorrow so we did not want to impose), and it was lovely.
We were totally spoilt- the present opening took all afternoon (although it was nice and slow- one at a time in reverse age order, with a little break in the middle for some pudding), and by the time we had finished it was dark. We had a little walk to see some of the lights and interesting decorations. 6 ft inflatable tree, snowman and santa anyone?
Some of my gifts- a cute owl hot water bottle, some lovely recycled socks (from recycled plastic bottles) that came all the way from Yellowstone when Andy’s parents went there in the summer, nice handcream and a lovely baking book.
And some latte making equipment! A little hand-held whizzer thing, and a cocoa powder/ icing sugar shaker, a marmalade making kit and the sweetest present ever. (I did warn you I would ramble on). Andy has 2 brothers and they both have girlfriends/ fiancées. The 6 of us decided this year that instead of exchanging gifts we would choose a show in London to see in the new year and go together. We had to bring a “fun” gift (with a small price limit) that everyone could enjoy, so we went for this game (which was fun as we played it about 4 times I think). Anyway, his youngest brother and girlfriend gave me the Stitch mug and toy (Lilo and Stitch is my favourite Disney movie) with a little card in it saying that they were sorry that we had to cancel our holiday and would not be going to Disney at Christmas, so here was a little bit of Disney for me to have at home. It was so sweet and so kind and so unexpected. And the mug is the perfect size for a latte I think 🙂
For me and Andy our presents were going to be going to see The Book of Mormon ( from the South Park guys) and also The Rockettes, both in NYC. But I found out that as a surprise he had booked for our last night on holiday to stay at the Disney Animal Kingdom lodge, but obviously yet again we had to cancel it all. So instead he got me a Kindle, which I am very excited about! I got him one last year and he loves it, and I do read a lot (and he kept saying when I was in hospital that I could do with one too as he kept having to bring me more books and magazines). It came pre-loaded with Run by Dean Karnazes which I started already. 🙂 I feel very lucky indeed 🙂
I spent today chilling with my parents for most of it, before they are off tomorrow, and it has been lovely 🙂
I did start off with mincemeat topped pancakes 🙂 Yum! They were made of spelt flour, baking powder, almond milk, apple sauce, cinnamon, ginger and a few raisins, topped with the mincemeat from Meridian. Yummy. My best ones yet. I just realised this picture is almost identical to the one with cake and tea- I am loving my tablecloth, placemats and little table decorations right now! 🙂
Any lovely surprises that you had over Christmas? What was your favourite thing that you gave/ received?
Before being topped with a little maple icing.
Mix flour and spices etc together.
Melt butter (pure spread), brown sugar, golden syrup and treacle.
Mix together. At first it looks all wrong, but keep mixing.
Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for a bit/ overnight/ however long you would like.
In the meantime, decide on the design of your house. Cut out templates with baking paper. When you roll out the dough, place the templates on top and then cut around them.
Once they are cooked, leave them to cool for a bit before you make the house. They are soft when they come out of the oven so this is when I cut the door and window, but you need them to be hard before you build it.
Then it is onto construction time. Royal icing is the best because the egg whites make it stick. In previous years I have made it from scratch, and also used the powdered egg white. This year I cheated further by buying a tub of royal icing- it was only 99p in Julian Graves so I thought I would try it.
I do the front and one side, leave it for a bit and then do the back and the other side. Then leave for a good 30 minutes.
So get all your sweets together:
I also had jelly tots and some milky bar buttons, and the roof pebbles I made (but I did not use them as I was worried they would be too heavy for the roof).
Let the fun begin! Use the royal icing as glue again and decorate away.
I use the 
A jelly tot for the door handle, plus to decorate the front. Milky bar buttons for the roof.
And some of the jealous sour sweets to frame the window at the back.
The Jealous sweets are really tasty- I got to try gummy bears (yummy), sour sensations (lovely and soft- a bit like the Goody peaches) and the cherry Kola (not my kind of flavour so much, but nice) and the best thing is they are all vegetarian, gluten free, with no artificial colours or flavours. Some of them are vegan and some are organic too so check out 
for white chocolate fudge) and just adapt that instead.
Gently melt the ingredients, stir to stop it burning to the bottom. Then let it bubble away until it reaches the soft ball stage (113C). At this point turn off the heat and add in the Christmas pudding crumbles.
Then get out the electric whisk and beat away. (Traditional recipes seem to say to put the pan in some cold water and beat by hand, but this way always works for me).
Keep going until it gets harder to whisk. If you take the beaters out the fudge will drip off in a sort of stalactite way. Then pour into the lined pan.
Leave it to cool- I leave it at room temperature as I find it much easier to slice when it is still a little soft- in the fridge it goes too crumbly and can snap when slicing. I left this for maybe 2 hours and then it was super easy to slice.
Then bag it up ready for giving as gifts. (I had a friend visit me yesterday so she got the first bag).
Bag up the rest (and optional- keep a little pot for yourself).
It did take a while (and his ears kept falling off at first) but I am really pleased with how he looks! Too pretty to eat! I had fun with the edible glitter too, but you had to dampen the icing for it to stick and that had not dried when I took the photos.
I also did one with gingerbread men and candy canes.
Although I made the mistake of using the gel icing for the eyes- it is super sticky and does not dry. The holly was tricky as you were meant to have cutters but I didn’t so had to make do with a knife- easier said than done!
In the box from Dunelm Mill ready to be given away.
The boxes are so good, as they come with the boards too. Normally I either give them away in tins that I want back, or have to wrap them carefully in a lot of silver foil and things. I will have to remember that for next year. 🙂
A black one that says “Just one more mile…” and a navy one with “Run <3 ” on it. Now they arrived while I was in hospital, so at the moment I have not tried either one out (and won’t get to in the near future either). So anyway I have decided that the winner will get to choose which band they like the most, and I will keep the other one to try out once I am better.