Marmalade, Marmalade...

personally I hate the stuff. But it is so satisfying and rewarding to make that this time of year I embrace it. The jars look so delightful with their orange interiors and it is so simple to make. The hardest part is carrying the Seville Oranges back from the market.

Aside from the inner orange glow I get from making it...I bother because it saves me having to remember to buy it for everyone else throughout the year. It's bad enough I have to buy mayonnaise and ketchup , two other products I don't like but that everyone else goes mad for in this house.

So if you want to achieve something this week...marmalade is the answer.

Goodbye Mr. Christmas Tree

Every year  I dread taking the Christmas tree down, I'm sure I'm not alone. It's so final, the fun is officially over. Nothing worse than seeing and then having to dodge the discarded corpses of trees littering pavements waiting for bin men. So we are thinking of starting a campaign to bring trees in at other times of the year. A potted apple tree at Easter or a small cherry blossom...no I don't see it catching on either.

At times over the last three weeks it was akin to running a guest house here. At best we had 2 hours between guests, at worst they over-lapped for lunch. Even the munckins started asking... when are we on our own again? But if you can't catch up with all and sundry at Christmas, when do you?

The top gift received by the eldest was her Swallows and Amazons dvd. It's totally charming, we now have numerous lists around the house written by the munckins, for the family pirate sailing adventure they want to go on. Typically I have already been labelled a Shipmate, whilst everyone else seems to be a Captain. Think we'll soon discover who really is the captain! Youngest thought that Santa eating a mince pie in her living room was amazing, well who can blame her.

What was the best thing your children had for Christmas or remember about Christmas?... Right...back to the tree.