Monday 23rd December - More preparations... and meatballs

What happened to the cream that I thought I bought? Maybe I only thought I'd bought it. There's always tomorrow.

Meanwhile:

The mantelpiece - involved dusting and polishing with some lurverly beeswax cream furniture polish - mmm - smells like a National Trust House in here. The delicate golden ornaments came from Copenhagen years ago.

We've tinselled the dining room - not as much as usual - but we seem to have lights and lights and more Christmas and still another box of lights left over, in spite of reluctantly abandoning the 25 year-old ones and the ten-year-old ones. Spare bulbs no longer available.

The menfolk watering the Christmas Tree. One person lies flat on the floor, pouring the water into the stand (or possibly onto the mat - hard to tell) while the other ferries jugs of water to and fro.

There was a HUGE amount of clearing-the-decks to be done, but somehow, while I was making cheat's meatballs (preheat oven to around 170C. Combine a packet of lean minced beef, say 400g or 500g, and a packet of posh sausagemeat or skinned sausages, probably weighing about 450g until thoroughly mixed. Line a couple of roasting tins with baking parchment. Roll into little meatballs the size of walnuts, and arrange in rows in the roasting tins. I made 40 this time. Bake for around 30mins. Cool, and freeze, loosely packed, so you can retrieve as many as you like when you like. Serve with bought sauce or home-made sauce or curry sauce or gravy) where was I, oh yes, the menfolk lugged ALL the Christmas decoration boxes back into the loft. Three cheers!

The weather is VILE. Wet and windy. We were out delivering a few last-minute presents and getting earfuls of dollops of very wet rain every time we (or rather, he) got out of the car.

We are having chicken and vegetable pie with herby suet-crust pastry for supper. Recipe for that will follow soon. Aha! the buzzer. That means it will be ready in about in 10 minutes.