New Year's Resolution (2012)

Just for the record (you can test us from time to time), Tim's New Year Resolution is to cook something new every week.  Nothing fancy, mind you.  Just something new.  Cooked a lovely, simple bean stew on Sunday. A lovely, warming, fragrant winter supper with a base of mustard and cumin seeds.

Christmas 2011

Christmas was so busy we don't really know where to begin.  Once Tim had finished work, and enjoyed a night of a thousand beers at the Euston Tap, we set about decorating the house and preparing it for our Christmas visitors. 

We had a lovely, quiet Christmas Eve with Tim's mum and dad, visiting the Crib Service at St Mary's before tucking a slightly excited Euan into bed, sipping a few cheeky champagnes, and sitting down for a delicious pre-Christmas dinner (for those who are interested: Celia Brooks-Brown's Torta di Risotto followed by baked apples stuffed with mincemeat).

Christmas morning was perfect, with Euan unwrapping the first of a host of presents from our very generous family, together with Granny and Grandpa.  The first was a toy police car, however, and it was quite difficult to persuade him to put it down and unwrap any other presents (including his new table and chairs and brio zoo train set)!

I honestly can't remember what we did for the rest of the day (and Boxing Day) once Granny and Grandpa had left for Paula and Dave's house, but I seem to remember it involved more presents, lots of relaxation (relatively speaking) and then a special Christmas dinner (again for those keeping a record: Celia's spinach, mushroom and chestnut filo pie with tomato and ginger coulis followed by Christmas pud). Yum.

On the 27th we played host to the Concannons and Howards, and on the 29th we had a visit from the Callingtons and Scudders.  We experienced the kind of whirlwind that only happens when you combine a host of small children with wrapping paper and sausage rolls, and it really did feel very Christmasy.  It was lovely to be able to spend a part of Christmas with the entire family.

In between those two parties, we managed to sneak in a trip to Whipsnade Zoo with Euan.  It was pretty chilly, so we couldn't stay for long, but we managed to visit the farm, meet the reindeer (resting after a busy Christmas Eve), see the tigers and sealions, and visit the 3-month old elephant calf ("Scott") and rhino before jumping into the car to visit the rest of the zoo with the windows up and the heating on!