Merry Christmas.

I know the day is almost over but I wish each and everyone of you a happy happy holiday.

The Aftermath...

Ok I am alive and well and back in St Louis.

The drive started off badly, we were taking a dining table and chairs which we no longer had use for up to Omaha.
We loaded it on the back of the truck, tied it down covered it with the tarp and off we went.
Three times we had to stop within the first hour to take everything off- re site it all and tie the tarp down more. WP resorted to backing up the ties with speaker wire ( hey its all we had, Macgyver has nothing on him.).
So needless to say WP was in a foul mood. Great. I hoped that this wasn't the beginning of the downward spiral.

From then on in it all went smoothly, pretty boring as it was dark so nothing to see.

We arrived late, I felt sick. But all went well, I think ?
His Mom and sister seemed really nice, lots to talk about they like the Beatles his Mom asked me if I had ever seen the Beatles....I said they were before my time. Perhaps I looked haggard from the drive up ? Hee.
His Mom has tattoos and a nose stud, which shocked me , in a good way. Maybe there is still time to get my nose done ?

Saturday his Mom had to work so we hung out with his sister, they fitted a new stereo in her truck, took a trip to Walmart, the usual Saturday stuff.In the evening as they still had loads of gifts to wrap I volunteered my services and was wrapping until the small hours.

Sunday we all went out and about, watched movies opened gifts, they got me a belt with a union jack buckle, a new Cardinals baseball cap, shower gels, sprays and all that jazz some PJ's and a flavoured tea gift set.
WP got lots of shirts, knives ( worrying) shower gels etc and boxers.
Then after dinner we took a trip into the city to see the lights and have a walk around the old part of town, they have some really cool stores up there.
Came home his youngest brother stopped by after work and stayed the night on the floor.

Thats about it!

Sunday we loaded up the truck, with more stuff then we had arrived with and left about 10 ish.

The ride was tedious, there is nothing to look at but corn fields...That and a porn store on every highway exit ! Who needs that many porn stores ?

Arrived home around 5 ate dinner then went to see a movie with his brother.

The good shepherd, don't waste your money. It was boring, I could barely keep my eyes open.

Yesterday his brothers wife came over and the first words out of her mouth were "Well, what did you think of their mother ?"
I had to reply honestly and said I liked them pretty well, she still maintains that they were probably ripping me to shreds the moment I left, I didn't add they they did indeed rip her to shreds.

I was on my politest best behavior the whole time, I made sure to wash the dishes every time. and did my bit in the chopping of vegetables and salad making.

If they don't like me well there is not much more I can do about that is there.

I have some photos of the city of Omaha, which I need to sort out, some of them are pretty dark. I may post them tomorrow.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, ate lots of nice food and got lots of cool gifts. =)

The Last Post

This will be my last post until after Christmas.
We are heading to Nebraska later today for a few days. I get to meet my mother in law and sister in law for the first time...I feel sick.

I hate the "meeting the family" thing, although I have to say all my previous boyfriends (serious and casual) have all liked me, or at least it seemed that way.
In fact my first serious boyfriends mother liked me more then him LOL. He was a bit of a "bad boy" I was a "good girl" well at least for parent purposes.
She used to have me stay over every weekend, buy me clothes as she did for her "other" 2 (real) daughters. After we broke up she would still invite me round whenever I saw her in town, although new boyfriend did not like it one bit so I never took her up on the offer.

But back to the visit, I have a feeling of dread growing in the pit of my stomach, I never know what to say to new people, it takes me time to get to know them. So the result is I often give off the signals that I am stand-offish and a snob, which I am not. Just shy.

Wish me luck folks.
What if his mother hates me and voices her opinion to WP, he might secretly agree with her. Shit.

I will just brush these thoughts from my mind and move on to happier things.

Starbender tagged me so here goes...
THIS TAG IS AS FOLLOWS:

• Grab the book closest to you.

• Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.

• Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.

• Name of the book and the author.

• Tag three people.

Another family devastated. Sara did not know how many more times she could witness this sort of thing without cracking.
"Sara?" Tessa asked.

Karin Slaughter
Faithless

Now who to tag...
KC (to nose at what romance she chose in the end)
Catch (She is always up for a tag)
Dirk_Starr (because I want to know what sort of things hippies read)

Of course take your time on this folks I know its a busy time of the year ;)


Next up I would like to thank Dirk for my Eddie award.

My next award goes to Best Graphic Artist of the Year-Pixiels by Pixie. She designed my graphics and I couldn't be happier with the job she did for me! She is a joy to work with and I love her to death.

Not sure he knows any other designers (Woo get me a designer!) but its much appreciated.
Also a big thanks to Vic for including me also on her Christmas gift list.
Thanks Vic.

So all that leaves me to say is

Women cant cook ?

You know you frequent the same restaurant ( I use the term loosely) When the guy behind the counter says he hasn't seen you in a while...
I replied that I did cook sometimes too ( again I used the term very loosely)
He went on to say how surprised he was that I cooked as so many women today cannot cook and are often married to men who are great cooks.
The guy behind me in line joined in on how true it was, I was out numbered!
As the line moved on the guy behind asked if I was from England, when I said yes his face split into this beaming smile ( I don't have that effect on many people)
He asked where abouts which is good because some people think London is the only place that exists in the UK.
I find it easier to say "near Liverpool" V's Chester, its easier then explaining where Chester is.
When I say that he nearly falls on the floor because the Beatles are his favourite group (No I was not around circa Beatles heyday)Not that he asked this of course, that comment was for blogs worlds benefit.
He then went onto talk about his church group had just done A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and he had loved it and would love to go to England. ( I hope the poor guy doesn't think he will find things in England like Dickens's day)
He launched into his stage accent which I must say was better then mine.....

Anyway enough about that.
I would tell you about the weekend but I cant remember doing anything of interest, so I wont bore you all.

I have been playing this song over the last few days, I love it. The background piece is my all time favourite classical piece of music.
Its been jazzed up and christmasfied by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra who are great, if you haven't heard any of their stuff check them out Here.

Anyway Enjoy:

I got my cake and ate it...

And it was soooooo good. Of course I had to share it with WP. he said it tasted good too. Imagine, he liked something British, perhaps there is hope for him yet.

Because he likes it I will take on the task. I have left it too late this year (many people make them 2-3 months in advance to make sure that they are well and truly soaked in Brandy)
Maybe I will make one next year- That should be fun, me making something as complicated as a Christmas cake.
I have no doubt it will turn out brick like enough to use as a door stop. The fruit will have all sunk to the bottom too.

Inspired I thought I would look into it, and found a few facts out.:

• The Christmas Cake as we know it today comes from two customs which became one around 1870 in Victorian England. Originally there was a porridge, the origins of which go back to the beginnings of Christianity. Then there was a fine cake made with the finest milled wheatflour, this was baked only in the Great Houses, as not many people had ovens back in the 14th century.


• PLUM PORRIDGE :Originally people used to eat a sort of porridge on Christmas Eve. It was a dish to line the stomach after a day's fasting, which people used to observe for Christmas Eve, or the 'Vigil' as it was called long ago. Gradually, they began to put spices, dried fruits, honey etc in the porridge to make it a special dish for Christmas. Much later it was turned into a pudding, because it got to be so stiff with all the fruits and things, that they would tie it in a cloth, and dunk it into a large cauldron of boiling water and boil it for many hours. This turned into Christmas Pudding.

yuk I hate Christmas pudding, which is often served as a dessert after dinner on Christmas day. Its usually set alight and brought to the table dancing with blue flames from all the brandy. Its then served with some kind of sweet white sauce, either Rum, Brandy or plain.

• PLUMCAKE : Later, around the 16th century, it became popular to add butter, replace the oatmeal with wheatflour, add eggs to hold it together better. This became boiled plumcake. So boiled plum pudding and boiled fruitcake existed side by side depending on which ingredients the housewife used. Only big houses had proper ovens to bake in. In the castles and fine homes, people would make a special cake for Easter, which was a rich fruitcake recipe with a topping of what we now call marzipan or almond paste. A similar cake was baked for the Christmas festivities, but whereas the Easter one was a plain cake with almonds, the Christmas one had dried fruits in season and spices. These represented the exotic spices of the East, and the gifts of the Wise Men . Such things were first brought to Europe and Britain particularly, by the Crusaders coming back from the wars in the Holy Land in the 12th century.

• TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE : But it was not a Christmas cake, but a Twelfth Night Cake. Twelfth night is on the 5th January, and has been for centuries the traditional last day of the Christmas season.. It was a time for having a great feast, and the cake was an essential part of the festivities. This was slightly different in different countries, and also at different social levels.But after the Reformation, these customs of the Church were banned by the Puritans, and fell into disuse. Without its religious overtones, Twelfth Night became a time of mischief and over indulgence. By 1870, Britains Queen Victoria announced that she felt it was inappropriate to hold such an unchristian festival, and Twelfth Night was banned as a feastday.

See even back then religion was dictating how people lived and celebrated.

• THE ARRIVAL OF THE CHRISTMAS CAKE : The confectioners who made the cakes were left with boxes full of figurines and models for Twelfth Cakes, and also had lost revenue by the banning of the feast. So they began to bake a fruitcake and decorate it with snowy scenes, or even flower gardens and Italian romantic ruins. These they sold not for the 5th January, but for December Christmas parties. And it was thus that we developed the Christmas cake.

I am ashamed to say I didn't know any of the above facts. so at least I learnt something today...

Now in case any of you out there want to try to make it too I will include the recipe. the ingredients are subject to a bit of open interpretation, some people don't like to add the brandy, some people don't add the nuts and so on.

Ingredients
For the cake:
500g/1lb 2oz sultanas
255g/9oz lexia raisins
200g/7oz glace cherries, halved
110g/4oz currants
110g/4oz cut mixed peel
110g/4oz ready-to-eat dried figs, roughly chopped
110g/4oz ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped
110g/4oz ready to-eat dried pitted prunes, roughly chopped
150ml/5fl oz brandy
1 small orange, grated zest and juice
255g/9oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g/7oz dark muscovado sugar
5 medium eggs
300g/10.5oz plain flour
200g/7oz macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
For the decoration:
3 tbsp apricot jam
500g/1lb 2oz white marzipan
140g/5oz ready-to-roll white icing
packet royal icing mix
silver balls, to decorate
icing sugar, to dust

Method
1. Put the sultanas, raisins, glace cherries, currants, peel, figs, apricots and prunes in a large bowl and pour over the brandy, orange zest and juice. Mix well, cover and leave to stand overnight.

2. Line the base of a 23cm/9in cake tin with a double thickness of parchment paper. Line the sides of the tin with a double thickness of parchment paper, so that it comes 4-5cm/1.5-2in above the edge of the tin. Wrap a sheet of folded newspaper around the outside of the tin and secure with string. Stand the prepared tin on a folded sheet of newspaper on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of the flour if the mixture starts to curdle. Add the fruit, its soaking liquid and the nuts and mix well. Stir in the flour, taking care not to over mix it. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 3-4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If the top of the cake starts to get too brown, cover with a sheet of baking parchment.

4. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin. Store the cake in an airtight tin, wrapped in greaseproof paper and foil for between two and three months. Feed the cake with brandy every 2-3 weeks until you are ready to decorate it.

5. Pass the jam through a sieve and warm it in a pan with 1 tbsp of water. Invert the cake onto a serving plate or board. Use a little of the marzipan to fill any gaps between the cake and the plate. Brush the jam all over the cake. Roll out the remaining marzipan and lift carefully onto the cake, easing it around the sides. Trim off any excess with a sharp knife.

6. Roll out the ready-to-roll icing to a 0.5cm/ 1/4 in thickness and cut out as many star shapes as you can, re-rolling the trimmings. Set aside on parchment paper to harden. Meanwhile, make up the royal icing according to the instructions on the packet. Spread the icing over the cake to cover it, then roughly peak it using a spatula. Arrange the stars on top and scatter over the silver balls. Leave the icing to harden, then dust the cake with icing sugar.

Nice things through the post..

I just went to check the mail and found a teeny little parcel.
Inside was the cutest little Christmas cake I ever did see and a pair of socks.

A Christmas pressie from my very good friends in England! I opened the cake (which I will enjoy later on) and I could smell the brandy as soon as I unwrapped it. Yum.

The socks rock! Tink of course!

So Thank you Tracey & Stephen you sure did cheer me up!

More Christmas and a moan.

I have caught the Christmas bug!

This first song I dedicate to Orhan because like him I get sick of hearing it,but it takes me back to the time in my life that I was Wham crazy.
I was totally in love with George Michael, he was the greatest person to walk the planet. My God what was I thinking! I even had my hair the same as his and wore the gold hoop earrings. When this song came out me and an Ex's brother recorded ourselves singing it ( Hey I was a teenager). He put it on cassette and we had a photograph of the two of us wearing Santa hats which he made into a cover for the box. Yikes two of my worst fears a photograph of me and even worse the sound of my voice on tape! I am pretty sure he has it to this day, well he certainly still had it a few years ago.

Wham- Last Christmas
I played this song to death, so much that I am still sick of it today.

And who could forget Band Aid, I love this video simply because its so good to look back and see all the bands that were a big part of my life back then. The video also has one of my favorite ladies on there- the late Paula Yates (married to Bob Geldof at the time before she ran away with Michael Hutchence)

Band Aid - Do they know its Christmas

***

Now to other good news, Thank God that Melrose didn't win last night on Americas next top model. I had this sinking feeling as soon as it was down to her and Carrie dee. But all was good in the end.

***

Now annoying news, I am owed money! I looked after some kids a while ago - in fact the people who had this apartment before us, they both worked nights in the medical field and their shifts clashed on a Sunday night- sometimes on a Friday too.
They have three kids aged 10, 3 and 5mths, They asked me if I would sleep over on said nights for a pittance really $25 per night. But I did because they were stuck and had no one else to do it.
Not only were they terrible payers but the house was always a disgrace- I don't mean just untidy but often filthy.As in dirty diapers on the living room floor, on the bedroom floor and the toilet...Well you can imagine.
More often then not I would load their dishwasher and clean the kitchen simply because I needed to get to the sink to make the baby's milk or clean some bottles( which were rarely made).
Added to that the 3 year old would never be in bed - This is 11pm I am talking about, they would let him nap late evening so then he would be up till 1 am often. Which is not good if you want to get some sleep before the baby wakes up at 4am.
Then they would rarely be home on time - 8am which meant I would have to make sure I got the girl up for school.
Anyway they have since moved up the road, still owing me $100+ I have tried to call several times but I show up on their caller ID so the phone never gets answered. I have been round and knocked on the door - no answer. I tried to call again the other day and the eldest girl picked up, just as I was asking to speak to her Mum or Dad the mother came on the phone:
"Who is this ?"
"Hi It's Pixie"*
"Who?"
"Pixie"
"I don't know who this is "
"Is this "Mother"** I am speaking to?"
"No"- Liar! It was her, I recognised her voice and the little boy in the background! You can also wager that she doesn't get that many people with a British accent calling her up either.
She then hangs up saying "I don't know who that is" !!
I tried to call back at once- you guessed it no answer.
[/rant]
* My real name
** Her real name

Cos everyone else has gone Christmas .....

and I don't want to be left out.
Nearly every blog I visit has Christmas inspired posts on which makes me feel all warm and happy inside. so I have to get in on the act too.

Catch wanted to know peoples top 5 Christmas songs which inspired me to search out some of mine. here are two of them.

Mike Oldfield-In Dulci Jubilo

The Pouges & Kisty McColl- Fairytale of New York

Love em, The Mike Oldfield track I love the second half when the electric guitar kicks in, the Pouges I love the whole thing the lyrics that start off happy and turn sour. Hee.

And just because other people are showing off their Christmas decor ( Pissy & KC) I have to get in on that act too so here were are the extent of my Christmas decor. The garland and wreath I made last year with lots of junk from the $ store, you cant really see it too well but it has cranberries, fur cones and fake fruit on.
The nutcracker man was from Target ( I think ?) last year too.



Aint Christmas grand....