Countdown to Christmas: Day 19

We're up to 19th December now, so I've only got a few more Christmas blog posts to write. The 19th was a pretty big day, or rather, it was the day we did a pretty big job!

Advent Tea

Day 19 of my Bird and Blend Tea calendar was Dozy Girl!

Christmas Earrings

Today's festive earrings were my dangly Santas!

‘Rites of Purification and Blessing’

The next Christmas chapter of Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun I read was 'Rites of Purification and Blessing'.

Apple and Blackcurrant Flapjack

We had another one of the flapjacks we got from Flapjackery in St Ives today... Apple and Blackcurrant this time!

Christmas Pudding

And this was the big job... it was time (slightly late, admittedly) to mix the Christmas pudding. I use quite an old-school recipe, which not only takes a lot of mixing, it takes a lot of steaming! (And as I'm posting this after Christmas, I can add that this year's pudding tasted great!)

Christmas Jumper Biscuits

Each time we go away to Cornwall, my mother-in-law buys me a festive baking kit to take. This year it was Christmas Jumper Biscuits. They look a little wonky, but they tasted great.

Muddlebox Cocktail

We caught up with another of our Muddlebox boxes today. This one was from September, and it was something called Sex on the Brain!

Nativity!

Our festive film tonight was Nativity!

Gifts

And tonight's (very festive) reading was Gifts by Laura Barnett.

Countdown to Christmas: Day 18

And another belated Christmas blog from me... I'm still determined to get these finished, even though we're almost on the other side of New Year!

Advent Tea

Day 18 of my Bird and Blend Tea calendar was All Nighter!

‘Rites of Celebration and Reassurance’

The next Christmas chapter of Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun was 'Rites of Celebration and Reassurance'.

Ann’s Pasties

I feel like since we were in Cornwall, it would be wrong of me not to post a picture of a pasty. Specifically, one from Ann's Pasties, which are the greatest of all pasties.

August Muddlebox

We carried on with making headway with our Muddlebox boxes while we were away, as we have really fallen behind with cocktails this year (weird). Can you believe this one was from August?? And it was a Seven Seas Martini!

Fred Claus

Tonight's festive film was one of our absolute favourites... Fred Claus!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 17

And another belated Christmas blog from me. Still a lot of stuff to post about, so I'll keep going till I get to Day 24!

Advent Tea

Day 17 of my Bird and Blend Tea calendar was Strawberry and Pomegranate!

‘The Trials of Christmas’

The next Christmas chapter I read from Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun was 'The Trials of Christmas'.

3 Minute Santas

Although we were on holiday this week, the show had to go on. My Hannah's Bookshelf Pre-Christmas Special (which is a selection of festive flash fiction called 3 Minute Santas) went out today on North Manchester FM.

Bakewell Mincemeat Flapjack

While we were in St Ives, we bought some lovely festive flapjacks from Flapjackery. Today we had the Bakewell Mincemeat one.

Magpie Murders

I read Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz while we were away. I loved this book so much, I was genuinely gutted when I finished it.

Surviving Christmas

Tonight we had a double-bill of festive films, starting with Surviving Christmas!

Four Christmases

And our double-bill of 'no one should go to Fiji at Christmas' films concluded with Four Christmases!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 16

Another belated Christmas post from me!

Advent Tea

Day 16 of my Bird and Blend Tea advent calendar was Great British Cuppa!

Ninja Book Box Week 3

Advent Week 3 from my Ninja Book Box advent calendar brought Tony & Susan by Austin Wright, plus some gorgeous looking chocolate orange chai!

Christmas Earrings

Today's earrings were little reindeer and Christmas puddings.

‘The Twelve Days’

Today's Christmas chapter of Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun was 'The Twelve Days'.

Polar Horrors

A lovely thing that happened today... Rob surprised me with a pre-Christmas present, the British Library Polar Horrors short story anthology!

Rare Exports

Tonight's Christmas film was the wonderful Rare Exports.

Murder on the Christmas Express

I also read Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict today.

Countdown to Christmas: Day 15

Another seasonal celebration post, and hopefully this one will give a bit of explanation as to why these posts have been an important part of our festivities this year!

Advent Tea

Day 15 of my Bird and Blend Tea calendar was Morning Kick!

‘The Origins of Christmas’

I went back to my seasonal reading of Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton today. There are ten (ten!) chapters devoted to the history of Christmas, so I started off with reading 'The Origins of Christmas' today.

A Trip to St Ives

We went out for a little day trip to St Ives today. It was freezing! But still a very nice and picturesque trip.

Cornish Mist

While we were in St Ives, we went for lunch at Scoff Troff Café, a lovely little place we first visited when we were in Cornwall last year. And I tried their Cornish Mist tea (Earl Grey with vanilla and steamed milk).

Brandy and Clotted Cream Ice Cream

Even though it was freezing, you can't go to the seaside without having an ice cream! And Moomaid of Zennor had a festive menu, so that seemed perfect. I tried their Brandy and Clotted Cream flavour, which was absolutely delicious!

Seasonal Whisky Tasting

Throughout our year of celebrating the seasons, Rob and I have been buying each other little gifts of whisky to mark each season. The idea was that we would save them all up, and then enjoy a special whisky tasting session together at Christmas. We did this while we were away, and we accompanied each whisky with a look back over what we did that season (using these blog posts to remind us). We also had some little seasonal playlists and a cracking cheeseboard! This is definitely a tradition we're keeping!

The Gift

The next book I read while we were away was The Gift by Louise Jensen, though the titular gift is most definitely not a Christmas present!