A promise of a Christmas Cake recipe.

Thank you for all your support, fellow bloggers, after my last post. I absolutely love this aspect of blogging - the community of people from all over the world who appear in your moment of need and leave a friendly word, a hug through the ether. I wrote my last post so that I could go to sleep and when I woke in the morning I discovered my in box full of lovely messages and comments. I can't thank you enough!

I thought that a small way to thank you would be to share my Granny's special Christmas Cake recipe ... no don't laugh!! I was looking through my Mum's "Wilsher Recipe Book" this morning and came across the Christmas Cake recipe. My Mum, some years ago, gave each of us, her 4 children, a notebook with all the family's best recipes written down. Its a brilliant food bible full of memories from childhood ... Wilsher Apple Chutney, Raspberry Steam Pudding, Flat Meat Pie ... and among all these recipes is Granny Wilsher's Christmas Cake recipe.

So ... my plan is to cook it, take photos and then share them on here along with the recipe and instructions so you too can sample Granny's famous cake. Well ... I say famous ... its not really, but its an old family favourite!! Now, I am not a food blogger, but I love cooking and I hope you will like this cake.

I was on Twitter earlier this morning and @AnEssexWife tweeted that she had been dancing around her kitchen with her children as they stirred and baked their Christmas Cake together. It reminded me so much of my childhood memories - warm kitchen, carols on the radio and my mum baking mince pies, making Christmas puddings and Christmas cake. The smell of cinnamon and brandied fruit heavy in the air, candles in the front room and a log fire crackling in the hearth used to make our Christmas magical. I know its a month off, but by giving you this recipe now you will have time to bake.

If you come back tomorrow I promise I will have the recipe, ingredients and photos up. If you are coming later I will post a link on here too!!

And again, thank you for your blogger friendship xxx

Made it through Christmas?

I hope as you read this that you have had a good Christmas. Its a funny old time of year isn't it? So much preparation, so many different ways of celebrating, so many arguments, so many special moments. Its a time when everything is magnified in our lives and each little irritation seems greater, each moment of love and laughter more precious.

I have friends who are facing their first Christmas without loved ones - either because of bereavement or divorce. I have friends and family spending their first Christmas with new babies and the mixture of joy and exhaustion that brings!

The whirl of preparation focusses so much on the material - food to eat, drink to consume, presents to buy. Mothers around the land, around the world, sweat over stoves trying to produce the perfect meal, the perfect atmosphere. And its all over in a flash.

I wonder how many people actually have the Christmas of their dreams or of their imagination? Does Christmas  really bring the happiness it promises?

 My thought is that the simplest of days brings the most happiness. I saw a picture on Facebook which was of some presents made by a friend's child and I would imagine they meant more than things that cost a fortune. To be with the people you want to be with and whom you love at Christmas must make a happy day too.

Christmas means something different to everyone. To some it is a deeply meaningful religious time. For others its a time to relax, eat and be merry. I often think, as I gaze out across the darkness on Christmas Eve ( hoping desperately that my children will go to sleep at some stage before the morning ) of all the different people preparing for their own Christmas Days. I think of the children filled with excitement, of the people alone, of parents wrapping gifts deep into the night and of the millions of people around the world for whom Christmas means nothing at all!

I for one have begun to feel, as I haul myself into bed on Christmas night, well, thank God that's over for another year ... I wouldn't really be that bothered if I never had to celebrate another Christmas. I am not a believer so the whole thing is somewhat hypocritical on my part. I simply am following tradition as part of a Christian society.

I work hard to create the 'perfect' Christmas for my children and husband, but it means nothing to me. The magic has gone. I wonder how many others continue in this way? Not many admit to it do they? We are all supposed to fall into one of two camps - either the "I LOVE Christmas camp" or the "Humbug! I hate it! camp".

The only thing I wish for is that I could spend the day with the people I want to spend it with - not the people I feel obliged to be with. I would just like to be with my husband and my boys - nobody else. But it doesn't work like that does it? For me the magic of Christmas is the magic of every day - the magic of being with the man I love. He and my boys are what make my life special and the only reason I celebrate Christmas is to make them happy. I honestly think that if they were not with me I would not treat Christmas Day differently to any other day.

I hope I don't sound too humbuggy? I remember when Christmas was a very special time - when I believed not only in Father Christmas, but in the whole Christian story too. But time passes and things change. I count myself very lucky to have a lovely  family to spend time with whether its Christmas or not.

I just hope that you have had a good Christmas - enjoyed it, survived it ... and that now you can face the coming horror that is ... NEW YEAR!! 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Not long now ... so I thought I'd post a photo ...