oopses

I was going to post a picture of my beautiful pumpkin pie, but I won't because I over-nutmegged it, and against the recipe's suggestion, put in allspice too. And I chickened out and cooked it a day too late. it needs to rest and solidify! So nobody liked it, and I didn't much either. Especially bad for a pumpkin pie ambassador such as myself, trying to bring pumpkin pie to the masses.

Although my deaf mother in law was surprisingly positive:
'What sort of pie is it, Jo?'
'Pumpkin.'
'But what's in it?'
'Pumpkin.'
'is there real pumpkin in it?'
'Yes, it's pumpkin...'

And then I was going to post photos of the lovely toys I've been knitting since October, one for my son and one for my nephew did I finish them in time no, I have not yet!

Christmas Day itself was a bit of a boob too - against our better judgement we went to my brother and sister in laws. They always have her two brothers, niece and nephew and her father there too. and it's just never quite right for us. It's hard to put our finger on it - they're ll lovely (well, her Dad is an elderly, humourless invalid, so he's not much fun), funny, kind, generous people, she has has her very nice house immaculate and beautiful. But it's just not comfortable, you end up not really talking to anyone, my husband wanders around trying to settle and failing, my daughter grumped at the other poor little girl with her usual display of fecky bad manners. She wanted to eat beside me but the kids have to eat in the kitchen - I forgot that last time we were up her younger brother had to eat in with them, they treat him like Anthony out the Royle family! Of course I wanted to eat Christmas dinner with my daughter, so I ate in the kitchen too, with my cold stuffing I'd brought and had no place to heat. It just hadn't occurred to me I wouldn't be able to eat together with my family!
After dinner there's a massive clean up drive, as my sister in law and her sister in law can't bear to leave stuff around. A mountain of leftovers is binned, huge amount of water is run... there's all this fuss before and after the dinner, the eating itself seems less important. Then everything's cleaned to within an inch of its life and locked away. I used to love wandering in and picking at leftovers, the odd roast spud, a little stuffing.... I liked it better than dessert (which I've already described as being a failure!).

Then to top it off, I had to drive home - an hour, on the motorway, which was pitch black for much of it, but with cars to close in front to use my brights, and the baby screaming the whole way home. It was a horrible ordeal, on top of a particularly unsatisfying day! This time we've made a pact - never again! My sister in law wanted us there as her husband feels isolated among her family and needs his own there too. She can't come down here because of her Dad, fair enough. But its not worth or sacrificing Christmas to! my husband hadn't wanted to go again and she was upset, then my daughter said she wanted to go play with the other kids - but in the end she was just tired and not into it. We've all been ill over Christmas.

Next year we stay put, chill out, have our own tasty food and don't worry about it. my mother in law was originally grand with the idea that we do that, but when I said yesterday that's what we'd do next year she pronounced 'So we'll never have Christmas together again!!!' Well, fine by me the way I feel at the moment!

All in all our holiday's been grand - my husband was home for Christmas Eve nght for the first time ever, yesterday was restful though our expected and anticipated visitor never showed up or called... I do have a sense of how I want things to be and how to achieve that, if not for this yeara then definitely for next.

Happy New year to you all!