Christmas Eve.

[curiouswombat]

Ah, home from church, D-d read well and was happy to be doing the Isaiah reading as it had not been a cause for dissension amongst any of the heretical sects she has spent the last term studying!!

Now the cake is decorated - for those of you who have seen our various Christmas cakes over the years



Very much a joint effort - both in design and execution - she made the stocking, I did the holly wreath.



The house is filled with the scent of frankincense and myrrh candles and orange and cinamon ones too, as well as the smell of spices from the red cabbage which is already slowly cooking.

The tiny turkey is in a bowl of spiced brine in the fridge, and there is bacon wrapped around sausages all ready to cook.

D-d is looking out her Christmas stocking, and I only have S2C's presents to wrap - which I will do in a minute as he is at work until 6a.m.

There are a few other Christmas pics here too



The tree - before there were many presents under it!

This is what you see as you come in through the front door -



And a close up of the swag so that you can see there are lights in it as well as up the banisters -



And finally a few of my Christmas angels -





I was going to post a Return of The Key story - but this is probably not the most sensible time, and so, although chapter 1 (of 3) is beta'd, chapter 2 written, and chapter 3 almost finished, I'll start after Christmas. It is a pretty angst-free bit of romance.

So - enjoy tomorrow, whether you are celebrating Christ's birth, celebrating Father Christmas, or just happy to have a day off work!

I'm going to finish my glass of port, wrap those last presents, sweep the kitchen floor, and look forward to starting the day tomorrow with coffee and church.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

What beautiful decorations, and that's a mighty impressive cake :)
Happy Christmas, m'dear!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The cake is a family tradition - a proper rich fruit cake, made according to my mother's recipe, and decorated with marzipaan and icing.

When I was in my early teens I 'pinched' the job of icing it from my mother, and D-d does most,or all, of ours. Designs vary from year to year!

Have a good Christmas yourself.

[deird1]

Hee! I love all the little angels!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The ones that are lights go all along the matlepiece, the small soft ones are sold in aid of our local hospice, sligktly different each year - those are last year and this year.

[rolypoly-laurie.livejournal.com]

The cake is so cute!

MERRY CHRIST~MAS!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - the Christmas cake is a family tradition, made according to my Mum's recipe, and covered in marzipan and icing - and the 'pattern' varies from year to year.

Although we were just discussing them, and both D-d and I think the one with the pyramid of penguins (http://curiouswombat.livejournal.com/51460.html#cutid1)was probably our best ever!

Have a lovely Christmas yourselves.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

The cake is beautiful!!! (Which is much better than the cake being a lie :-) As are the decorations!

Happy Christmas!!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are quite proud of it - we think it is one of our best.

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

Look at your home all Christmassy - magical! And the cake is a beauty this year.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are rather proud of the cake. The house is almost tidy, and all dressed in it's best for the festive season - tomorrow I will mainly lie around!

[manoah.livejournal.com]

Your house looks lovely, your cake looks delicious and I'm so very happy you are with your D-d!

Happy Christmas to you all!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

And to you and yours!

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing the cake and house decorations with us.

Merry Christmas to you, S2C and D-d

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's my pleasure. Have a lovely Christmas.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

That cake is amazing! What flavor is it under the gorgeous decorations?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. We're British - it is a proper traditional rich fruit cake - very, very fruit and booze heavy!

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Everything looks so warm and inviting! I hope you have a lovely holiday.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and the same to you and yours.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Your cake is a triumph. Lovely!

It's always a shame that it takes me until a day or two before Christmas to box or bag the gifts and get them under the tree. It would look much more festive if I did it earlier. But I'm not alone!

Your newell post is very festive. I love open staircases; they decorate beautifully.

Your angels remind me that I purchased some snow people several years ago that are quite similar in design from the ladies of our church in support of missions. I liked them so that I kept them out one year after I'd packed up the Christmas stuff just for the rest of the winter. I wonder what I did with them when spring came? I should have packed them away with Christmas, because they're probably lost for a very long time now!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are rather proud of the cake! I remember as a child first helping and then taking over the decorating of the cake. In those days we used royal icing, made by hand first, which we usually swirled and peaked into a snow scene and then we had little figures that came out year after year to form a snow scene.

It only occured to me yesterday thad D-d has done the same thing to me over the past three or four years, taken over the cake, although now we use fondant icing so we roll and cut instead.

The angels are from Hospice - they have snowmen and Santas too, but I like the angels!

I know what you mean about putting things away not to be seen again for years - but oh the joy of discovering them eventually!

Have a lovely day!

[gillo]

We had little figures too - and a tiny Christmas tree with a frosting of "snow" on it, every year without fail. I wonder what happened to them.

This year I cheated and just bought some stollen from the German Christmas Market in Birmingham. And I'm too full even for that!

Happy Christmas!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

we usually don't even think of cutting into it until we have family around on Boxing Day. Although we did manage a small amount of Christmas pudding and brandy cream about 8.30pm...

We had one of those trees too - made out of stuff like a tiny green bottle brush.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I like the swag - very pretty! The cake is great too. I'm not a huge fan of fruit cake so I tend to steer clear of Christmas cake and Christmas pudding (bah humbug! LOL!), but that looks yummy.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The cake will probably taste good - decorating it is almost as good as the eating, thought, to be honest! Hope you are now suitable replete...

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

A most impressive fruitcake, we don't have fruitcakes that lovely over here (or taste as good I bet).

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - it will look rather like the one in your icon when cut into - possibly a couple of shades darker.

Hope you are having a lovely day.

[mefnord.livejournal.com]

It looks so very much X-massy, I love it!

Happy Holidays to you and your family, my dear!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hope you are having a lovely day, too.

[rincaro.livejournal.com]

The cake is gorgeous! Merry Christmas to you, and S2C, and your DD. May your new year be blessed!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and good wishes to you, your husband, and the boys, too.

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

We're having power outages off and on, so I don't dare stay on the PC for too long, but I wanted to wish you and your family a very, merry Christmas.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

And the same to you and yours! I hope you have enough power to cook by, or you might have a rather glum Chrsitmas - so my main wish to you is a well-fed day!!

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't exactly well-fed. We had cheese and crackers, chicken noodle soup, and microwave popcorn.

We were going to relatives for dinner, and hadn't bought anything for the holiday itself, but we've been snowed in for 4 days, and had to get into our emergency supplies.

But we did have a 1/2 bottle of whiskey, the power was never off long enough for the house to get too cool, and we did a lot of cuddling to stay warm.

Sometimes the best Christmases can be the simplest ones.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The whisky and cuddles sound good - and at least you didn't starve - but I still hope you have a more substantial meal next year!

[married-n-mich.livejournal.com]

Everything looks awesome! The cake? Wow! Very talented.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Decorating the Christmas cake is one of those family things - I helped my Mum, and then took the job off her altogether, D-d has always helped me, and now takes the main part in doing ours.

Sugar paste is so much easier to work with than the royal icing we used to use in the past - rolling is much easier than piping!

Hope you had a good day.

[jerusha]

That cake is beautiful!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Tastes good too - we finally cut into it today when we had my Mum, my sister and her family around for afternoon tea. :~)

Course we'll have trouble beating it next year...