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!

Countdown to Christmas: Day 14

I am determined to publish all my Countdown to Christmas blog posts, even though it's taken me until New Year to write them. I think my stubborn completist streak has kicked in. Anyway, here's another day of festive stuff from our pre-Christmas trip to Cornwall.

Advent Tea

Day 14 of my Bird and Blend Tea advent calendar was Birthday Cake (a tea I drank quite a lot of back in August)!

Christmas Earrings

Today's festive earrings were little gingerbread houses.

Muddlebox Cocktail

Somehow, we've managed to fall very far behind with our Muddlebox cocktail subscription boxes this year, with some sitting in the cupboard for far longer than intended. This seemed like a good time to catch up a bit! This box was from March (can you believe it?), and it was a Mai Tai!

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Bit of festive baking today. It looks a bit wonky on this picture, though it wasn't quite that bad in real life! (And it didn't taste wonky, if I do say so myself!)

Figgy Pudding Liqueur

This was a nice little festive tipple I'd be saving for a pre-Christmas treat: Figgy Pudding Rum Liqueur from Riverside Craft Spirits.

Scrooged

We watched Scrooged tonight, another of our regular festive films.

The Sentence is Death

I do like to save murder mystery books for this time of the year (as well as ones set in Cornwall or at Christmas), and so the next book I read was The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (and I LOVED it).