The annual Southwyck Christmas party went well yesterday; caught up with a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a while, ate and drank in a festive fashion, and even had an unprompted singalong!.

This year’s theme was to make a paperchain to be strung in the living room; each person contributing a link decorated and made however they wanted out of whatever they wanted. If people couldn’t be there yesterday, the link acted as Christmas card and they sent them along in the post. There were some fabulous ones made including the prerequisite one with cotton-ball snow, a sewn fabric one containing dried lavender, a möbius loop one from a scientific uncle (heh) and lovely crocheted link with a dangly snowball pompom! This one I confiscated from the chain and wore..

So this years gifts have been mostly handmade, including;

• Peppermint & Rose kind-of-creams*
• Frankincense / Clementine bath salts** (a bit fail, as most people have showers I found…)
• Fudge*** – supremo hit (if I may say so myself!) as it worked first time, is v tasty and easy to adapt. A tiny bit of fail was cutting it into star shapes for gifts, which meant that were lots of trimmings of peculiar sizes that – oh dear – had to stay here to be eaten by us!

* recipe hastily scribbled down from a cafe’s copy of Fresh magazine.
** Martha – Body Scrub; adapted scents and changed it from a scrub to salts using Dead Sea Salt.
*** Martha again – Foolproof Holiday Fudge; adapted to use veggie marshmallows (US import, try Sweet & Sara or Sweet Vegan in the UK) and G&B’s Maya Gold choc; seriously tempted to try another batch using their white chocolate. I’m guessing both these projects will be available on her site after the next issue is published?

ETA: Tried another batch of fudge using white chocolate and it failed miserably; it just stayed melty-marhmallowy and didn’t set.

Those smartypants over at the P22 type foundry were inspired my John Cage’s compositions and have made a musical way to say whatever message you like!..
I put in ‘Merry Christmas and very Happy 2008 to you all! xx’, set it to play a glockenspiel and this is the result – ta da!…

On another musical note – here is Helen’s song – Christmas Queen – where I sang in the choir You can download the EP online at Bendi Records

There’s something very soothing about threading coloured wool through punched holes… It reminds me how much I love the ’stringing beads’, ‘drawing with crayons’ and ‘cutting pictures from a magazine for your scrapbook’ pictures in Richard Scarry’s Great Big Schoolhouse:)

Dec 24: Christmas Eve train picnic..

Went up to Wales to visit M’s family for a couple of days… Walks were walked up a mountain, and alongside waterfalls… The Cranberry cake was eaten (yum), presents opened, real ale drunk and news caught up on.. The ‘traditional family Christmas’ turned out to be had playing EyeToy on the Playstation with M, nephews and brother in law, watching Doctor Who save the world (again) and getting to fly the tardis after (yay! digital telly)

Dec 23: Last minute baking…

Just had time to make this (thanks Nigella) and use the cranberries that were bought on impulse earlier this week…
Turned out well!

Will wrap some and take it up on the train as part of our Christmas Eve picnic…

Dec 22: Good News

It’s always nice to finish off the year with a bit of good news – looks like I have 2 months work booked for the New Year starting in Feb. This, dear readers, is something unusual in the world of freelancers! It looks like it will be an interesting project too…

Dec 22: Bring a bottle and bauble!

What a great idea from R of North London – her blog is amazing anyhow so read the rest of it too…

Dec 21: Bring back Toga!

A baby Jackass penguin has been stolen from the Isle of Wight Zoo… he will die if he’s not returned soon; needing to be kept cool and only accepting food from it’s mother…

Dec 20: Guerilla Xmas

Some things to do instead of last minute shopping… Even better you could come to this tomorrow:

You are cordially invited to a public carol service in Parliament Square at 6pm on Wednesday the 21st of December 2005.

This inclusive service will contain both Christian and secular verse, and is expected to last no more than an hour.

Candles and song sheets will be made available, with donations going to Medical Aid for Iraqi Children.

Please note that if you attend this carol service, it will classify as a spontaneous demonstration (of faith, hope, joy and/or religious tolerance) and there is a possibility that you will be cautioned or arrested under Section 132 of the Serious and Organised Crimes and Police Act 2005.

Click here for more information.

Carols in front of Parliament – breaking the law?
Dec 21: update

Well maybe it isn’t – there were no police, we sang, thought of others, held candles, got cold, met R (though we missed the festive drinks as we had to cycle home). Felt proper Christmassy…