In which I am quite tired but also quite exhilarated

If you had to put together a bunch of stressful things that are inadvisable to do in roughly the same time period, they might look a bit like this:

buy your first flat and move house
Christmas
make cakes for friend's wedding
make cakes for boss's party
snow

Stupidly, I have done all these things lately. GluttonBoy said of me this weekend 'if you die before me, your gravestone will read 'she bit off more than she could chew.'

Let me explain - in early December we moved into our first flat - the finding and buying of said flat and the moving processes was so stressful I almost called it off. And then we were plunged headlong into Christmas, which due to family stuff is always a tiny bit on the fraught side. And I had been hired to make 80 wedding cupcakes for a dear friend's wedding on the 20th. That's fine, I thought to myself, I have the Sunday before to bake/ice. Except my annual girls' Christmas beano was then scheduled for the Sunday. And on the Saturday I agreed to make 80 cakes and deliver them to Camden. And then it snowed so there were no cabs and I don't drive. So much, so hellish.

But, when I saw the wedding cakes on the stand I felt unbelievably happy and proud it was all worth it. And I had a brilliant time with the girls for Christmas. So now, is just Christmas to cope with.

And actually, I love Christmas food. Not just the big day itself, but almost more the peripheral days. GluttonBoy always wants the same Christmas eve dinner - salmon, new potatoes and hollandaise. Smoked salmon, scrambled egg and bucks fizz for breakfast, the constant mince pie/quality street grazing and best of all in my book - the boxing day neverending gluttony.

I'm not at home this year for Boxing Day and neither is GB, but we've decided to make the 28th (our first full day together of the Christmas season in our own flat) a late Boxing Day. On the menu (or rather in the fridge) will be:

Sausages - rolls and in blankets
Cdld meat - turkey, ham, beef
Cheeses - english, french and boursin
Pickes and chutneys
Some fruit for the sake of appearance
Christmas cake (once I get round to making the bloody thing)
I would even go so far as to make vol au vents and potato salad

There will also be drinks galore, enough to ensure a low-level fuzzy head all day. And Mad Men series 2 and 3 which I intend to watch in full.

Christmas is suddenly looking up!

Much love

GG