Advent is here

We must have got on well enough at my daughter's school a couple of weeks back because we have been booked to help with a school trip to Kenilworth Castle in March : )  I am sure we will sleep well that night with chasing around after three classes of Year4s at the Castle.

We are now in December and the Christmas round of busy-ness has started. Last week my husband and I cooked a Christmassy three course dinner for 60+ at church. We had a "Rudolph" starter which was a piece of melba toast, spread with pate and decorated with half a cherry tomato and a slice of cucumber cut in half and positioned to be ears/antlers. It worked very well and lots of people were seen smiling at it. They need to be spread with pate as close to serving as possible so that the crackers don't go soft...  I'm always looking for new ideas for starters that are economical, easy to produce in quantity and look nice. - and can be served on side plates so that we don't have to wash the bowls before pudding.

This morning at church we had the christingle service and this afternoon we have a group of elderly people coming in to have tea. They mostly live alone and have few friends left so we are doing a carol service for them and more christingles. We do this on the first Sunday afternoon of each month and the folk who come are always delighted to have an afternoon of chat and fun and perhaps a craft activity - and sandwiches and homemade cake. Hence the carol service today which is early in the season for it.

I have hit this year's target for things gone from the house. I'm very happy about this and it feels so much better to have hit a target of 500 than to miss a target of 1000 by a mile. I think I am going to continue next year. It will only take me another 50 years or so to have a tidy house... : )

504 items gone