The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 2

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome all new and old friends.

The journey continues.

That panforte does indeed look delicious @LillianGish as do your candle holders!

Oh goodness, @StrungWithSilverBellsAndFlowers that bay leaf wreath is stunning, as is your decor. VVN. I do love something that is both practical and beautiful.

My Dad has apparently dropped off some 'yew tree cuttings' by my back gate. It was dark by time I got home. I should really go and check in case he has left half a tree there.

Just in case anyone is feeling flush, Trudon have a Black Friday offer on whereby if you spend €200 you get a 70g petite bougie free (as well as the couple of free samples they usually offer)

Also, Nigel is doing some signing next week in case anyone is nearby.

And I bet it smells wonderful (and VN!)

Small mercies there indeed @AgathaMystery and finding a pocketful of happiness in every day.

@RainbowZebraWarrior is so attentive to detail - people often don’t take enough care to thank and give small kindnesses and it’s lovely to hear of people who do. I’m resolved to sort the bra situation and it’s highly likely to involve kapok (or lavender bags!!).

It’s marvellous you have someone working with dd - and at least they’ve sorted that she need the b12. I know how much of a difference it makes and that is a very uncomfortable jab to have.

Dh is off out to the cinema with ds1. Ds2 is at orchestra practice, so mum and I have Gardener’s World, the crossword, knitting and an elderly flatulent dog happily rolling on his back. We’ve had Nigel’s roast cabbage with cheese sauce and it was gorgeous (I swear it’s the dog and not us!). We are VN this evening and it is the loveliest thing.

@Bimblesalong that food looks wonderfully cheffy. Your plates also look very like the Casafina Mallorca ones I collect.

@EphemeraleEudemonia why thank you. We're both Scots so feel we're going home to marry. Albeit it rather nicer conditions than where we grew up (me nasty part of Glasgow and him the Edinburgh equivalent).

I'm massively impressed and in awe of your candle making. Sounds amazing.

On call this evening so stayed at work - we live rurally so rather stay here than drive home and risk delays getting back in an emergency. Luckily quiet with patients sleeping well so I'm in my office with you lot, Nigel and a really bad hot chocolate from the vending machine.

absolutely not feeling flush!!

@StrungWithSilverBellsAndFlowers the wreath is amazing

When I first started out in oncology we used to have a physio who offered this service. It helped so many people. Thank you for what you did. I just wish it was something we could still offer (in my hospital- hopefully others have the service still).

Second this!

It had to be done. The best winter fragrance ever. And, at risk of being nvn- so much more teach than cire trudon. No Christmas should be without it.

We have a little one-day market in our town on the day of the Christmas lights switch-on, which it used to be my job to organise. I much prefer little ones like that but goodness me they are A LOT of work to organise. I very much enjoy it now I don't have to be there at 6am supervising stalls going up

Where I grew up we had a (real) Christmas tree in the centre of the village, with a nativity scene in a little glass-fronted box next to it. My uncle worked for the parish council and my mother used to tell us it was his job to organise the tree, and that my aunt used to wrap the 'presents' that decorated the branches (boxes wrapped in festive-looking paper), along with the strings of lights….though I suspect that was just Mum's joke.

The Christmas lights switch-on used to be very low-key indeed - basically just that tree and maybe a very small sprinkling of extra lights on lamp-posts and so forth, with the food shops putting out stalls on the pavement to sell drinks and snacks - but I was back there last year and it had turned into a massive event with multiple fairground rides, the entire road closed, ear-splitting music blaring, all the shops open till late in the evening and the whole shebang. I did feel a bit wistful for my childhood and what I remember as the proper start to a magical pre-Christmas time, though it was completely uncommercial and laughably dull by today’s standards.

Apricot brandy help please - I shopped from memory today and forgot sweet white wine. Does Nigel mean dessert wine (I assume not as he would say it I'm sure) or something that I wouldn't normally buy? And if so, any suggestions? There's only very dry stuff currently in my garage! Thank you.

I love the wreath @StrungWithSilverBellsAndFlowers !

@Bimblesalong the bra situation doesn't improve! They are huge aren't they! The 'softie' the breast care nurse gave me in no way matched the size of my remaining boob either - it was huge and I am a very small chested lady 🤣 Whether I wore it or whether i didn't, I looked lopsided! I did like the shape it gave me though, so when I decided against reconstruction I went online and bought a slightly smaller one to put on the other side. Now I pretty much match!

Morning, all! No entry today so a chance to catch up for anyone who needs it.

@Mumwithbaggage yes Nigel does mean dessert wine. I leave it out, personally as I don't like things too sweet. You could try sherry if you have any, or some vermouth. I added a glug of aperol to mine. Seems a shame to go buying a bottle of dessert wine for such purposes when you don't like or drink it.

@daliesque thank you. My little tag line when doing scar tissue massage was "to aid healing and feeling" It is a service that should be available in all hospitals. It's still offered here at the Freeman hospital and Northern centre for cancer care. I was talking to a hospital head of dept recently and she was trying to get the board to agree have a massage therapist for staff. Sadly, she reckoned she wasn't going to be successful.

@Mumwithbaggage I just used the remainder of some white wine u had knocking about. Haven't tried it yet, so I will report back.

Agreed on the Winter thyme. I save that for betwixtmas which is one of my favourite weeks of the year.

Up early as lots to do today. Bit of decorating, I've been meaning to finish painting the kitchen for a year (a year!! Shameful) I need to find my branch, need to make a dent in the children's Christmas lists and Dh's favourite job of the year-fetching the Christmas decorations down from the attic. I go quite hard on the Christmas trim and it takes me about a week all in. So I start early with getting the things sorted out. He loves it. (He does not love it )

Well I've just had a nip and it was very nice. Bit sweet but topped up with some cava it will be superb I think.

Topping up with cava is a great idea!

Ooh I have the same candle snuffer! I feel very fancy when using it, those must be VN, I say 😃

@Bimblesalong the cabbage looks wonderful! I quite fancy it but not sure how it would go down with my lot (ok, dd2 would decline to even try it).

@RainbowZebraWarrior you do seem to have had a very full and interesting life!

@piscofrisco I'm at the mercy of someone else getting up to get the decs out for me - ideally they'd be out by now so I can see if anything needs replacing.

I bought some lovely minty green baubles at The Range last night, and dd2 made the mistake of asking for a festive bird decoration. They didn't have anything vaguely like a partridge, so she has a flamingo, a humming bird and a swan (I think there was something else too). Also bought several of these candle baubles - hopefully they last longer than last year's clip on candles that eat batteries at a rate of knotts!

I'm fancying tinsel & ceiling decs this year - NVN at all, but feeling a bit nostalgic 😊 Not a clue where would have nice tinsel (The Range was rubbish!), but bet they'd have had things for the ceiling!

@lucysmam for the first time in years I found myself almost buying tinsel! I might still get some...I'm obviously feeling extra nostalgic too! I used tinsel when the children were young because it just looks so magical.

My grandparents didn't use tinsel but they did use lametta! It looks so beautiful, especially on a real tree, but I don't have the patience to put it on, nor to take it off!

@Confusedmeanderings (hope I didn't get confused on name...I've decided to go with my questionable memory rather than read all the way back) how did it go with your very-much-homemade mincemeat this year? 😉😉

I can't remember who asked but someone was curious as to what I'd ordered in from Sweden...it's nothing too exciting, and available in the UK as well, but I saved a huge chunk by ordering from Nordic Nest (a Swedish company) during a special deal.

I got the Georg Jensen Seasonal extension for the advent candle holder, saving a great deal on it, and a couple of star lamps, plus this darling little candleholder that I've had my eye on for a good while, for quite a lot less than I could get it for here. All in all I saved about £100!

Seems a bit mad that it can be cheaper to have goods shipped halfway across Europe but it is what it is.

Too many commas. Too tired and lazy to correct it! 😁

We have lots of snow today!❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

I'm going to take the view that the universe did this just for me to help cheer me up and make everything good! 😉

My grandparents didn't use tinsel but they did use lametta! How VVN your grandparents must have been @NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights - the man himself is very sniffy about modern tinsel (p164), but orders his lametta online. I love your Georg Jensen advent candle holder - in fact I have a Georg Jensen silver necklace in a similar infinity design.

They were VN in some ways, @LillianGish! Ah I miss them. ❤️

I've had the candleholder for years; DH gave it to me for one of my birthdays. And I've wanted the tree extension for it for a long time and this year I just thought why not?!

I collect the ornaments too, but I always look for a bargain. I don't have any of the jewellery yet. I've got my eye on a piece for my 50th!

@NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights Our family is a big Jensen fan and both me and mum have that candle holder. I love the extension to it. Dh also bought me a new Jensen ring for my birthday yesterday and its gloriously tactile. I keep taking it off just to play with it.

I'm madly jealous of those who have snow. We are too close to the coast so it's just rain here.

Forgot to say- I have a secret love of tinsel- the smell and the feel of it is a sensory connection back to childhood and brings instant feelings of Christmas anticipation. I don't have it on my trees anymore (no room with all the baubles!) But I do have it round all the doorways. I've struggled to find decent lametta in recent years but have a sandwich bag of the bits faithfully collected back off the tree from past years. I pay the children to search the christmas trees for missed decorations before they are taken away by the council with a bonus for every decoration they find so they are ruthless in finding every last bit