Countdown to Christmas: Day 20

It's the final day of our stay in Lizard. Tomorrow, we'll be heading back to Manchester.

Lizard

Last day of our stay in our little cottage by the cliff edge. We're not sad though - mostly because next year's stay is already booked!

Raspberry Millionaires Flapjack

Raspberry Millionaires Flapjack from Flapjackery in St Ives.

Christmas Biscuits

Every year when we come to Cornwall, my mother-in-law gives me a festive baking kit to make. This year, it was Christmas shortbread biscuits. We didn't have anything to pipe the icing on, but I don't think I did such a bad job with a teaspoon.

Mulled Apple Juice with Rum

Yet another batch of mulled apple juice! Once again, I used our spice blend from Spicy Chameleon, but this time I added an extra ingredient as well.

Advent Tea

Behind Door No. 20 in my Bird and Blend tea calendar... Let's Be Having Brew!

Advent Jewellery

And behind Door No. 20 in my Avon jewellery calendar... silver moon earrings!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 19

Still on holiday in our little cottage at The Lizard!

Twilight Walk

This evening, we went for a twilight walk to the cliff edge near the cottage. There's some really dramatic rocks there that looked amazing in the evening light (though it got very dark very quickly so we had to be careful).

Rudolph Millionaires Flapjack

Rudolph Millionaires Flapjack from Flapjackery in St Ives!

Christmas Pudding (Stage 2)

So we steamed the Christmas pudding for 8 hours today and had a bit of a surprise when it was done. Turns out, although I have a number of skills, judging how much baking powder to add to plain flour when we don't have any self-raising is not one of them. We have a very puffy pudding.

Tullibardine Whisky

More nice whisky tonight. We had a Tullibardine tasting set, which was another present from my little brother's recent trip to Scotland.

Escape from the Museum

And another escape room game tonight. This time, we escaped from a museum.

The Christmas Appeal

After another successful escape, I settled down to read The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett, accompanied by Candy Cane tea from Bird and Blend.

Advent Tea

Behind Door No. 19 in my Bird and Blend tea calendar... Champagne Supernova (their Manchester blend)!

Advent Jewellery

And behind Door No. 19 in my Avon jewellery calendar... silver loveheart earrings!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 15

Our Cornish pre-Christmas holiday continues...

Lizard

Another day in our lovely little isolated cottage at The Lizard.

Christmas Earrings

And another new pair of Christmas earrings! A little pair of Christmas puddings from BadcatdesignByZoe!

Ann’s Pasties

When in Cornwall... Ann's Pasties are the best pasties.

Mince Pie Flapjack

Lovely mince pie flapjack that we bought from Flapjackery in St Ives yesterday.

Cinnamon Roasted Squash

I attempted a festive dinner tonight. Cinnamon Roasted Crown Prince Squash (with a squash from our most recent Groobarbs delivery) with mash and sprouts. I'm not sure I was a fan, but Rob seemed to really like it!

The Other Mrs Walker

The next book I read on holiday was The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis, one of the library books I borrowed in December. And I had a cup or two of Whisktea from Bird and Blend while I was reading it.

Advent Tea

Behind Door No. 15 in my Bird and Blend tea calendar... Jammy Dodgers!

Advent Jewellery

And behind Door No. 15 in my Avon jewellery calendar... a silver loveheart pendant!

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 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!