Day 8 & 9 - Sprinkle On Some Sugar

Yesterday, I went with Kieran and his preschool to watch the children in Reception of Castlebatch School do their Christmas performance.  The difference between St Marks and Castlebatch is obvious.  St Marks is a church run school and so we saw a proper nativity.  Joseph, Mary and even the donkey.  With Castlebatch, they sung about Jesus being born in Bethlehem, but it also covered songs celebrating Christmas and what it's about.  It was just as wonderful to watch, amazing that children of four and five years of age can remember so many songs.  The preschoolers sat there, good as gold, mesmerised too.  So cute all of it.

Kieran will be doing a Christmas "concert" next Friday, just before his Christmas party.  I have a slight feeling one of the songs is Christmas Pudding.  I just love how he sings, "sprinkle on the sugar, sprinkle on the sugar." 

Apricot jammed up!

Today, I managed to marzipan my Christmas cake!  Firstly, I met my dad in the morning for a coffee in Druckers, a café in the Sovereign Centre, in town.  He goes there so regularly, when they see him coming, they make his cappuccino!  He chooses the same table, too, which gives us a great view of the new pier.

I finished off a bit of Christmas shopping I needed to do, and by the time I'd filled the car up with petrol and put it through the car wash, (the car was so dirty my lights came on with the auto sensors!) I needed to collect Kieran.

So after we'd had lunch, I rolled up my sleeves, put on my pinnie (apron) and started rolling out the marzipan.  There was no way one block of 500g was going to cover my 23cm Christmas cake.  Dashed around to Tesco's, dragging poor old Kieran along (why is it illegal to leave kids home alone, I mean! He would have been fine watching 'Show Me Show Me' - I am joking!), grabbed another block of marzipan and dashed back home.  Hurrah! Rolled it all out together and it covered my cake nicely.  Panic over. Phew!

Marzipanned up!  Wait till you see me iced.

Now I need to find the time to write my Christmas cards... which I haven't decided how many I'm going to write, or not, yet, but I did buy 50 Christmassy second class stamps yesterday.  Hmmm....  Last year I cut down how many I sent, spreading good will wishes over the internet - much more environmentally friendly and cheaper!

I also need to find time to wrap the presents I've got for family, ideally before the boys break up from school/preschool.  It will be just easier if I don't have 'helpers' and I worry it takes away the magic of Christmas, and wonder if they'll start to question Santa. (Hubby and I usually wrap all of the boys presents one night, while they stay over at Nanny's.  Then we have no fear of them coming down stairs and catching us wrapping their toys!  Not that they usually come down stairs, but it would be Sod's Law...)

Yeah, I've got one week.  Oh joy!