Countdown...

The Christmas Tree is now up in all it's dishevelled glory, as though some evil fairy has spewed glitter in the corner of the room. 

A few years ago, my eldest daughter tried to colour-coordinate the tree, buying gorgeous blue and silver baubles and matching tinsel. Problem is, I am too tight (erm, sensibly frugal...) to throw out any bauble/tinsel/ bit of glittery stuff in favour of a colour scheme on what is, essentially, a decoration. So our tree is a mish-mash of shiny things bought and made through the years. (The oldest decorations were bought via mail-order catalogue when we lived on a farm in the North of South Africa, 27 years ago!)

Our tree is an aging fake - about 12 years old now - that, in a bid to be a real tree, manages to shed bits of needle-shaped green all over the carpet with alarming zeal. It is already (almost 5 days in) beginning to irk me...

However, despite the massive blob of tree messing with the feng shui, I actually find that I am surprisingly chipper heading into Festive Season 2020. It might be that I have a valid reason to avoid the shops - the Hermes delivery guy now stops for a brief (socially distanced) chat. I also have a VERY good reason not to plan Christmas dinner (what's a girl to do - can't get to the shops!)  and (sorry relatives and lovely friends) a really good reason not to have to fake Christmas cheer through compulsory Christmas visits. Not that I dislike visiting people, but not under the artifice of Christmas. I can also eat as many mince pies as I like in the comfort of my own home and blame my pie-like appearance on lockdown...

Any-way, Christmas is what you make it (like anything). And, after making Christmas wreaths and salt-dough decorations, we have now made our annual gingerbread cookies. We began making gingerbread when we lived in Mozambique. Unable to find chocolate baubles, we made gingerbread cookies to hang on the tree - and our `tradition' has stuck. I have to admit that I am the bringer of ideas and often not the actioner of ideas - so my elder daughters have always made the gingerbread. It has always been great gingerbread! This is actually the first year that I've made it myself....and it wasn't quite as good. Any-way, this is the recipe we use:

350g plain flour

1tsp bicarb of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

125g butter

175g brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

1. Sift (on in my case - throw together) flour, bicarb & spices

2. Add butter and mix until like breadcrumbs

3. Stir in sugar

4. Beat egg and syrup together (sounds impossible - but it actually works)

5. Add egg-syrup mixture to other ingredients and knead until smooth.

6. Rest for 15 minutes.

7. Roll, cut-out & bake at 180 C for 15 mins

8. Ice when cool.

Voila!

A very tasty, fun way to liven up non-Christmas!

Oh - and do you know that Christmas is now just two weeks away....

And then the Christmas tree can come down!

Whoooo!