It's Starting to Feel a Bit Like Christmas

Everyone has a trigger that sets them on that proper Christmas spirit. In this house it is doing the gingerbread cookies. It signals that my mum and stepdad are here - because we don't do the cookies without my mum. It signals that there are only a couple more sleeps until Christmas morning. It signals that all shopping is done and there shouldn't be any reason to leave the house other than for pleasant walks and to pick up the turkey from the village butcher.

All the gifts are bought/made, I hope! Just lots of wrapping to do still. I'm not very good at doing that in advance as much as I plan on it year in and year out. The family time has started and everyone is winding down from routines, and fighting germs. It's all good here.

So with lots of gingerbread dough made a couple of days ago all we needed was the child labour.

A myriad of sprinkles. This was only the tip of the rainbow -

And four piping bags. Then the fun began.

I finished off the Christmas cake at the same time. It isn't my finest moment - but then again cake decorating is most definitely not my forte. It also didn't help that Emily decided a big blob of icing (that was supposed to resemble a pile of snowballs) would be the perfect finish. She and I glared daggers at each other for a while. But you can't stay mad when you are decorating cookies. And I had to admit that as the cake was not exactly a work of art in the first place so did it really matter?!

Much more important that it taste good.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their own Christmases in their own way. I shall be taking a week or so off blogging to concentrate on the important stuff - my family.

A very Merry Christmas to all and the very best for 2013!

Susan