Happy Christmas!

Christmas this year has been GREAT! It's been such a treat to actually be with family, watch them open presents and see them laugh at some of the really silly things I found.

I spent a whole week trying to perfect my practise run jelly mixers - the full run took four days to complete (mostly setting time), but they are worth every minute of it!

I had to keep the alcohol levels tame, as my siblings were also having them, however my friend LD came up with a great name for the full powered version: Traffic Light Jellies: "Because when you hit red, you gotta stop."  There's sour apple spirits, plain lemon, Glava whisky with orange and a sweet cherry liqueur.

I still have to push the extreme limits of jelly setting and beat my mother's famous vodka jelly some day.

My "Treasure Chest" of presents worked out really well, with my brother's "crap present" of a Glow-in-the-Dark Toilet Roll raising laughs, and my mother's response to her teeny weeny pink frying pan was just marvellous.

We also got some great presents - my mother bought me a HUGE box full of canned beardie foods (Sandy is DELIGHTED, and made off with most of a can of crickets). His Lordship got an awesome inflatable shark Zeppelin - it wandered off and scared the bejaysus out of me when I walked into it at head height in the utility room.

I especially like the Smelly Toes, it's a lovely perfume. His Lordship stuck his finger in the USB fan. Apparently it hurts and he won't do that again.

Dinner was fantastic too (thanks Mum!) and His Lordship has fallen in love with both cranberry/red cabbage mix and Serano ham with melon - we had to go out and buy some specially! Maybe Bogle will cook next year, now she has so many cookbooks?

Or maybe not. You know, just in case.