I'm not going to lie, we've had our Christmas tree up for almost 2 weeks. I figured that since we're heading to Canada on the 14th that I could bring out Christmas one month before our departure. I love having Christmas things out but I don't particularly like the fact that we had to get an artificial tree. I miss the smell and feel of a real one.

And don't get me started on our new fake tree. It is definitely not 6 feet tall (as advertised) and the base is naked and uggggly (hence our decision to shove it in an antique crate).



I also managed to whip up this little wreath using £5 worth of cheapo Poundland baubles. It's definitely not as nice as Eddie Ross's but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm also rather pleased that I managed to get all of my Christmas cards written and posted. Pictures of our cards to come!



Football/soccer was cancelled on Sunday afternoon due to a water-logged pitch so Lee and I headed into town so that I could point out some ideas for Christmas presents. Unlike my husband, I am finished my shopping (insert smug grin here).

After pushing our way through the throngs of Welsh pensioners who had arrived by the bus load for the Worcester Christmas Fayre we decided to pop into our local pub for a few beers. We never go for drinks anymore really so it was a very relaxing way to spend a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon. A Leffe blonde and the Sunday Times = bliss.



We also managed to finally order a Blurb book of our wedding pictures for Lee's mum and stepdad for Christmas. (There is 20% off all orders until tonight!). The book is a slightly abridged version of the one we made for ourselves (i.e. we deleted the 20+ pages of us and our drunken friends at the end of the night).

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Exhibit C:



And finally, to cap of this rather random post, my favorite current British TV show is back for it's third (and final) season! Gavin & Stacey really does make my evening. Uncle Bryn is my favorite.

Tonight was cold, Lee was going to be late home from work, and I didn't feel like doing any exercise as I was still sore from my soccer game yesterday. All I could think of was cookies. We had no treats or goodies in the house and I had such a hankering for something to have along with my cup of tea.

I figured I was out of luck as we had no eggs in the house but then I remembered these tasty ANZAC buiscuits, which require no eggs.



I also happened to have a bag of coconut just sitting in the pantry so this recipe was perfect. They are really easy to make and honey can be substituted for the Golden syrup.

Ingredients

• 85g porridge oats
• 85g desiccated coconut
• 100g plain (all-purpose) flour
• 100g caster sugar (I just used normal granulated sugar)
  
• 100g butter , plus extra butter for greasing
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the oats, coconut, flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the golden syrup. Add the bicarbonate of soda to 2 tbsp boiling water, then stir into the golden syrup and butter mixture.
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the butter and golden syrup mixture. Stir gently to incorporate the dry ingredients.
3. Put dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on to buttered baking sheets, about 2.5cm/1in apart to allow room for spreading. Bake in batches for 8-10 mins until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I finally have come around to using weight measurements instead of cups when baking. It actually is a lot easier just to dump all of ingredients onto my Typhoon scale.

I gave a lecture to some med students about errors and why humans make mistakes this afternoon.

They looked pretty disinterested except for when I broke out some fun visuals:



Good times.

Last night Lee and I went to our friend's house for a small Halloween party.

I sacrificed one of my two remaining tins of canned pumpkin to make some mini pumpkin pies. Lee artistically decorated them with some toasted pumpkin seeds :)



Here we are in all of our Halloween glory.





I thought Lee looked particularly creepy.



He was gutted to have come second in the costume competition to this rather creepy Jack in the box. Ha ha.



I'm currently psyching myself up for our big football (soccer) game against the first place team this afternoon. It's been raining heavily all morning and the wind is gale force. Yuck. Wish us luck :)