Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

Good parenting.

In a bid to cheer myself up after the events of Friday, we went to Mayfair Mall (home of the 'real' Father Christmas).
He was there !!!!
There was a notice asking people to refrain (there's a word you don't see very often over here) from taking photos with their 'personal devices' (ooooh Matron !).
So, I whipped up stairs to the balcony overlooking the grotto, peered through my 'personal device' and was rewarded with this scene.
Some kind souls had taken their kids to have their photo taken with Santa and they were dressed as Santa's elves.
Bliss and joy.  Good fortune obviously does favour the brave and I got some brilliant photos.
I can't help but chuckle at how distressed those children will be with their parents in years to come when these photos are wheeled out every Christmas.
I bet they will have them made into Christmas cards too, so every nan, grandad, aunt and uncle will have their own personal copies to torment them with.
Good show parents, well done.

We did a bit of Christmas shopping.
I am content with Christmas 'looking', to be honest, but Philip does like to buy new Christmas stuff and I sometimes have to drag him out of the stores.
I never thought I would find someone who enjoys all things Christmas as much, or even more, than I do.
My Christmas pudding and cake arrived from Amazon.
It all looks fine.  Just a small boring cake which I shall tart up quite a bit.  Maybe next time I will make my own again but it has been quite nice not to have to do it.
Hopefully, next time I will be able to go to England and get the ingredients as I usually do.
I have found I can get mincemeat so I have decided to make the mince pies.
Philip's team at work won't be getting their little Christmas cakes this year.

Here are some I made earlier.
I have been making these for friends and Philip's colleagues for some years now.
They are a lot of work, and they always say they like them.
But do they really?
I have often wondered if they really eat them?
Americans have no tradition of Christmas cake and they make fun of the American style fruitcake which is hard, dry and contains no alcohol, marzipan or icing.
There are a also a couple of Indians and a Russian on Philip's team.
Every year after spending literally hours, making and decorating these little cakes, a little part of me
wonders if they find their way to the bin or the dog more often than they are enjoyed by people.
I shall never know really.
Well, I might get an idea this year.  I wonder if any of the people accustomed to receiving one of these little delicacies will express sadness over not getting one this year?
If no one says anything then I will know not to waste my time any more.
I will let you know.


I love it when the Amazon stuff starts arriving.  So do the cats.  It means there are boxes and we all know how much they love boxes.  Even a tiddly little box is worth squeezing into but Tootsie didn't have to squeeze too much.


TommyJones had something of a dilemma this morning.
I had made them a cat nip toy.  They all love it.   TommyJones wanted it but Lily had it.
What to do?
He erred on the side of caution and decided to try to look pathetic thus appealing to her better nature.
Well, that didn't work.
At least he knows not to try to take it away from her....not Lily......don't even point.

posted by Sue Banks @ 9:05 AM