"Oooh" the Wise & Avid sing, "could we want another thing? Joseph shearlings, Maxmaras, handbags covered all in stars..."

[LetThemEatCake]

following on from bunny's festive lead ....

Sorry have been out trying to find icecream in cone (as park was too cold for van)...

Ok ds doing his homework, he is quite fast! will try and post.

It was a MB dress linked to MW by Pickled (sequins on shoulders). It looked lovely, was one of the more understated dresses. Looked really nice. Seeing the dress was like seeing an old friend... I was delighted

Hostesses x 2 looked gorgeous. One the tallest in the room by a long shot and one of my bfs in a divine Japanese-y dress.

I wore a very bright silk Paul&Joe dress which worked well as there was quite a bit of black.

There were zillions of bottles of Bollinger, but people were lovely enough to be gracious re my addition

umm There was a stunning sequin dress too.

And some beautiful French, Italian, German women and men!

Finished quite early 1am (for me!) and surprisingly feel great considering how much I er drank. Must be the niceness of the champagne!

Ok ds is flagging.. think that's it. Back later to read through.

Our party isn't until next weekend Reine but thanks all the same

Lovely to hear about what you're all up to.

Esher really like the gilet and synthetic top you linked to

OWW your DH is amazing!

Been cooking loads today, mung bean curry, NY's soup, these easy peasy biscuits and got some choc chip cookies in the oven now. Thinking about making gingerbread men now!

Enjoy the rest of your weekends ladies.

oww - just found you post. DH has got it just right hasn't he! So glad it went well like that (but boo hiss at MIL!)

Zembo - have you done the biscuits before? Are they worth a go?

I have to do a biscuit marathon t/m...DS has requested choc chip for his class party and I'm not allowed to cheat and buy them . But my only failsafe recipe makes huge ones so I'll have to bake 4 batches. T/m will be baketastic!

I was given a gorgeous diary by Paperblanks - love it! Glamorous and tasteful!

Bonsoir - was it the glam party you were going to last night? How was it and what did you wear?

Did roast chicken for lunch and realised at the last minute that I had no potatoes so cooked rice instead . So had roast chicken, stuffing, gravy, red cabbage, leeks, peas and rice. And do you know it was actually delicious much lighter than potatoes and the children prefer rice anyway.

On the subject of stuffing - my granny used to make delicious stuffing with breadcrumbs and sage etc but no meat - does anyone have such a recipe?

I have one with breadcrumbs, sage and boiled onion tracey. I love it. It has no egg, just butter. (No wonder I love it!)
I make it in a small dish and cook it for 40 mins, or I've done individual balls before too). Let me know if you want quantities and recipe.

Oh that sounds just the thing bloss - if you wouldn't mind giving me the recipe that would be fab - thanks.

Marsha it was me in the sequins on the shoulders dress - I wish . I don't think I've ever been to such a glam party, it sounds lovely .

Well, back from the concert and the 'opera' piece turned out to be one of my favourites (along with DD's pieces of course). In fairness to my DB he thoroughly enjoyed the concert and didn't laugh a bit, even when DD sang in Italian.

DD and I were both dressed head to toe in grey today - a multitude of different textures though - cashmillion (a la M&S), lace, velvet cord, tutu netty stuff and silk.

Good luck with the biscuit marathon hells.

Snakeprint T-Shirt. Could be good or not? Maybe I'll stay on the safe side and get one of the stripey ones.

More animal print here. Colours are not for me but for those of you who want to add some more leopard to their wardrobe .

For you bloss!

Hi all!

OWW - what a lovely gift from your DH.

Verity - Still a lot of snow here, but nothing new since Friday night. A bit melted yesterday, but since then the temps have plunged again, so now lots of snow and ice.....and more forecast next week!! I am going to try and get to work tomorrow though - mothrs help is back from Oz, which makes everything a bit easier!

Marsha - Your party sounded fab - I am very jealous!

LTEC - Hope Mr C has had a fantastic day and enjoyed Pizza Expressing. We have a ponce-tastic as well, who is prone to saying things like 'do you have any balsamic vinegar please?' at soft play parties..How to make yourself popular

I have decided that I need a hat. Both glamourous and warm. I own few hats and they are strctly practical/skiing types. I may sally forth to the shops in Nottingham tomorrow or Tuesday.

Today was in grey oversized snuggly jumper, over fitted grey top, and TS skinny flares. I was delighted to read in The Times Style mag today that 'Skoot' cut (skinny bootcut) is the thing to be wearing. I knew if I hung on to the TS skinny flares for long enough fashion would turn full circle

You temptress fritzi!

tracey:

2 large onions, skinned and chopped
25g (1oz) butter
salt and pepper
100g (4oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
10 ml (2 level tsp) dried sage

1. Put the onions in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes.
2. Drain and mix with the other ingredients.

(Either stuff a 4lb chicken/duck with this quantity; double quantity for goose. Or bake in a small dish for about 40 mins till brown and crispy, or roll into individual balls and bake (180C) for 30-40 mins).

We have a poncetastic DD of course!

Happy Sunday everyone,

Zembo sounds like you've been busy with all the baking. Is it for the party or just because?

Tracey I think Delia has a sage and onion stuffing recipe. I'll have a look in a bit for you. I always make her bread sauce at Christmas (used to be one of my 'jobs' when I was younger). It is amazing stuff. Hope your family gets rid of the germs soon.

Speaking of getting rid of things - hells, sympathies on the dreaded 'visitors'. They are an occupational hazard in my job although I've managed to avoid them for the last few years. Yuck yuck yuck! I know the official line is that they can't survive off the hair but we put one on the microscope at school once, forgot to take it off the slide and the next day there is was still wiggling away.

Marsha sounds like a fabulous occasion - how lovely to have so many beautiful people to look at

cake am ever so intrigued by the mystery purchase. Is it even of a style and beauty nature?
Happy Birthday to C - party and cake look great. I love those lunch boxes.

oww - ah, what a lovely husband you have. MIL sounds bonkers. Perhaps the 12 tea towels were to represent the 12 days of Christmas? I suggest giving them back to her, one a time for the next 12 years Christmas presents

bunny Happy birthday! Sounds like you're doing an amazing job with the babies. Glad to hear they're chubbing up, especially little L.

NY at the poncetastic DCs. My friend's DS had a memorable tantrum once when, at the age of 3, whilst camping, he shouted 'but I want pine nuts with my pesto!'

I got a tapas reprieve last night as we went to a tapas bar for my friend's birthday on Friday so she requested a curry instead. I cooked Dolcee's Nigella chicken. It was lovely but let down a bit by the fact that I didn't have any chicken stock in so had to use a stock cube instead. All the spices smelled delicious though and I made some onion bhajis which went down well.

Am shattered tonight due to fairly late night last night and a ridiculously late one Friday. We ended up in on of my favourite places- a rather grotty rock bar - great music and great people watching (although on the opposite end of the spectrum to marsha's party ) so didn't get in until 3.30am.

In the middle of ironing and needed a W&A break. Thank you for all your lovely comments re DH - he can be very sweet and thoughtful (and has just told me his next sailing trip will either be in Greece or (get this!) the Seychelles so am wondering if his present was a way of softening the news!)

Who was asking about diaries - Fleecy? I have this one for 2011 here here - its a work home one - and even tho I don't have a job I'm going to use it for all the non-home stuff I have like expat group etc. Basically got it cos I liked the cover (brown sticker thing comes off) and the space on each page of lists/notes! I love a good diary!

Hells that biscuit recipe is a doddle, I've made it dozens of times. My DD made them to take to school for her 'show & tell' recently. Your choc chip cookies sound like the proper slightly chewy ones. The ones I made today were the Bero book ones which are much smaller (think Maryland cookies) and possible to do in two batches. Recipe includes marg (I usually prefer to bake with butter) but def ok for kids stuff - can give you recipe if you want.

Mrs J sounds like you had a fab night out last night, not surprised you're tired! Impressed you can make onion bhajis, I've had a go but not too good. We bake 'just because' a bit too much in our household , but the gingerbread men turned into gingerbread bears so I'm going to freeze them for next weekend (not sure if this'll be detrimental, but will give it a go).

Tracey chicken and rice is preferable to chicken and potatoes in my books ( but then rice is our staple, so not surprising really!)

tracey - yes, we went to a big Bat Mitzvah party in Brussels yesterday. A lot of money had been spent on the party but it was strangely reminiscent of a product (child?) launch. Probably what comes of having parents with too much money who spend their whole lives at work - the aesthetic was rather industrial . I wore the Etro dress and Fratelli Rossetti shoes that I had bought new for DSS2's Bar Mitzvah two months ago.

I love rice with roast chicken - sometimes I make Indian spiced rice with plain roast chicken and a salad for supper. Yum!

I love rice too. My mum is Indian by birth and now a naturalised British citizen, so we always had rice growing up. Also everything had curry powder added to it like shepherds pie, casseroles etc. so I love spicy food!

I shall try those Zembo - thanks for the link! I've bought all the ingredients now for the biscuits but will definitely pester you for your recipe next time round!

OWW your Mil sounds hilarious, but that is said from a safe and non-related distance!! Very excited about your dh's pressie, fabulous!

Marsha glad you had a good night am LOL at your relative height being pertinent to the good nightedness of your evening

Master C has had a brilliant b'day Pizza Expressing was a big hit (I had Nicoise w/o potatoes and w/o dressing, am assuming this was most Dukan-friendly option??) and the carols were adorable. Weirdly, I found myself deep in conversation with a woman at the mince pies/ mulled wine bit after and she saw fit to tell me about her 'little op' booked for mid-Dec - yep, you guessed it, a designer vagina. Si parla del diavolo ...

meet up ladies still waiting for PMs from a few of you pls.

Fritzi and OWW need some tips and insights into a proper Xmas Eve, help!!!!

speak of the devil indeed! So glad that the birthday celebrations went well