a little early but....

I am idling away the next 45 minutes before leaving to catch the train to Amsterdam, so can't really settle to anything too time consuming like the ironing . . . well I could but I'm not!!! So wanted to start searching for a Christmas background for the blog. Found this one, liked it, cut and pasted it and voila; Christmas blog!!!!!

I made the first batch of Mince Pies last night as Tim felt it was time to start on them. They are ok but I think the homemade mincemeat is not as nice as I had expected, Delia! A jar or two from the super is called for I think....("and another one makes the list")!! The pastry I use is from a now ancient book by Jocelyn Dimbleby and I believe I bought it in 1984 or thereabouts! It is still my favourite as it is lovely and crumbly and tastes of oranges.
I'm busy  writing my list of things to bring back - and it grows daily which is a good and a bad thing. I decided on some books for presents this year - but why oh why did I choose large, heavy ones?!!! They are a delight but oh so HUGE!!! I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it will need to be the cabin bag on wheels that I take with me since my poor shoulders never seem to quite recover from carrying heavy bags these days. Same as when I was eying up which handbag to cart around Amsterdam this afternoon. I have finally decided on a small one...turfed out all the unnecessary items I usually stuff into my larger one, as they are non-essential today, and am wondering which coat to wear now;..........all decisions that are seemingly more difficult than I imagined. What could be wrong with me???? .......

We went to do Tim's present buying yesterday and were amazed at how everywhere had suddenly sold out of precisely the gift we had decided upon for his sister and Ric!!! It was all down to the unexpected popularity of a certain item that obviously caught the attention of thousands of women at the Winter Fair last week! Can't name it, but I managed to buy one of them on Saturday and since then, all sold out! I can totally understand why...................sublime. Ineke, this would be something right up your street, m'dear!!!
So, my time to iron has been nicely halved so I suppose I ought to do some work t-shirts for the boy otherwise he won't have one for the morning. Been nice chatting!!
Sue xx