Big year

The problem with not posting for a while is that although there are no posts, things are still happening, so the news piles up until you have so much to tell but not enough space to fit it all in. So I have a lot of news.

Firstly, I am engaged :) Josh proposed on 2nd December after a lovely picnic, and I obviously said yes, so we're now frantically trying to organise a July wedding and realising what a lot of work that entails! Secondly, my sister passed her driving test, we had Christmas, welcomed a new year, celebrated my Mum's birthday, and made I my very first Christmas cake! It's been a big year, and 2012 will be an even bigger one.

Everyone has their Christmas traditions, passed down through the family, which we relish in repeating year on year. For me it's the Christmas cd that Dad bought years ago, which still fails to be beaten and is on constant repeat from 1st December; it's decorating the tree with my mum and sister, dancing like loons to 'In dulce jubilo'; the amazing Christmas dinner; the rushing around to visit all the families; the mandarin cheesecake my Grandma always puts out for me. I hate change, and I love tradition.

Which is why it's surprising that I'm really excited about next Christmas - it's going to be a big change after all. It will be the first Christmas for me and Josh as a married couple, in our own house, with our own tree and own decorations. And yet I can't wait! Whilst I'm excited to share some of our old traditions, I'm also looking forward to creating some new ones of our own. Like a yearly gingerbread house, and handmade decorations which we've been making and collecting over the past few years. Just for a start anyway :)

So this year when my Grandma offered me a Delia Smith Christmas cake making set, I jumped at the chance. Not because I like Christmas cake, in fact I completely detest it, but it's another tradition which I'd like to say I've tried (although not kept!).

And I'm not going to lie, it resembled some sort of bodily excretion or 'vomit' as Lydia put it, before it went into the oven. Which didn't do anything to help endear it to me. And I wish I could saying that tasting it turned my life around and changed my whole thinking about Christmas cake, but to be honest it didn't taste much better than it looked before it was cooked. But the icing looked pretty, and at least I can say I've done it now.

Ignore the wobbly marzipan and icing, they're much thinner towards the middle, plus it's my first time doing anything like that so it was never going to be perfect!

So there we have it, my first and probably last Christmas cake. Check.

Happy new year,

Amy x