CHRISTMAS FUN IS FOR BIG KIDS TOO

It is such fun when you have children and, like me, you have time to do things with them. When they were young we used to make all our wrapping paper by laying reams of brown paper all over the kitchen floor and stamping Christmas designs all over it. I made the stamps by cutting out shapes of stars and Christmas trees and so on out of kitchen sponges which they then dipped into paint.

I also used to make them a new Christmas T-shirt each year, decorated with fabric paint.....I got quite good at it eventually, just as they grew out of the idea! We used to do a lot of fabric painting, making bags for holding things like pencils and music books etc.

Hugh used to cook the best mince pies and he regularly still makes chocolate truffles from the Haigh's recipe leaflet you can get at the shop.

Every year for 20 years or so we have made gingerbread at Christmas time too. It doesn't matter how big your children get, they never get tired of Mum's gingerbread. They used to help decorate them and that was very messy and "creative" but never-the-less the cooking and icing was done and a lot of fun was had by all. They used to take them for their school friends and teachers so we used to triple the recipe so we had enough to leave some for ourselves. One year I left a plate piled up with them on a coffee table in the lounge while I saw my mother to the door, and when I came back ALL the gingerbread had been eaten by the dog and the serving plate - a hand-made wedding present - was smashed. Needless to say that dog got no dinner.....for several days!

This year Roger and I made the gingerbread for our great-nieces and nephews.....oh dear, we must be very old.....I remember my great aunt and she was ancient! Well, its not so bad when you think that I was only 14 when I became an auntie. Anyway, both our boys are away and won't be home for any gingerbread this Christmas so we only made one quantity. I will put the recipe on Gardeners' Gastronomy....maybe it is already there...

Roger made the piping bags from greaseproof paper, while I mixed up the 4 colours of icing for the decorating.

 

The cooked pieces......are transformed into whatever Roger and I can come up with...

 

 

 

....like this bikini beauty of Roger's... and then packed into cellophane bags .

 

I am taking some of these to our seedsavers picnic in the Botanic Gardens tomorrow.... see you there.