I absolutely love Christmas; I'm the sort of cook who is quite happy doing a couple of different roasts and feeding 15 people or decorating the house top to bottom or making industrial quantities of fancy breakfasts on Christmas morning. I like the preparation and I like the process.
But, I split up with my ex just before Christmas two years ago (absolutely the right thing; don't feel sad about it at all!). Last year I had a really miserable Christmas because I'd just had a failed round of IVF and a really horrible friendship breakdown, and I was just keeping it together for my wonderful DD. Both of those years we managed to do some lovely 'event' type things like making wreaths and going out to listen to carols (and she's insisted we do those again).
But what domestic stuff do you do if you have a tiny family and the blueprint of loads of joyous big-family cooking and celebrating just doesn't fit?
My guiding idea for this year is to let DD (who is a fish and shellfish fiend) loose in M&S and buy some fancy stuff along the lines of lobster, blinis, smoked salmon and so on, so we can have a very fancy lunch of the kind I certainly couldn't finance for more than the two of us.
What else is nice, that she and I can do together? What traditions have you evolved?