Flying by

I know that time is supposed to go faster as you get older, but I didn’t think I was old enough for time to fly as it has been recently! How is it only nine days from Christmas Day already? Last time I turned round it was November.

So, news update; we’ve sold the flat at last! Or at least, because I feel uncomfortable with being too confident, we’ve accepted an offer and the solicitors are doing their thing preparing the documents and swapping details before an exchange of contracts. We’ve also found a house to buy which has a nice garden, a garage and an upstairs, all of which will be new for us! Please keep your fingers crossed for us that it all goes through smoothly, and that we’re moving into our new home in the early Spring.

I’m nearly ready for Christmas; all the present buying is done apart from the last minute things which I have planned to buy at various points through next week, the cards are written and posted and the decorations have been up for nearly a fortnight now. We’re all enjoying all the lights that we’ve put up, and will definitely be sad when they have to come down on twelfth night. I’ve got a list of festive recipes which I’m looking forward to attempting next week, especially as our lovely brother in law is doing the Christmas dinner, so I feel more free to do some festive baking. One thing I’m defnitely hoping to try is Joy the Baker’s chocolate peppermint roll – we all love minty chocolate things, and a bonus is that this recipe is gluten free. I have some good friends who have coeliac disease, and I’m always on the lookout for good gluten free recipes for them. Another is chocolate honeycomb (like Crunchie bars), the recipe for which I have in a lovely book my Mum gave me last year. In fact, there are so many recipes I’d like to try, I think I could bake a couple of times a day from here to new year and still not get through them all! Plus by then I’d have put my family into a diabetic coma!

My knitting has picked up pace a little in the last few weeks as I’ve been knitting slipper socks for the kids for Christmas. The first pair were knitted in a sport weight Mountain Meadow merino wool and are really nice feeling. It was good to knit with too; the only small complaint I would have was that the wool seemed to be full of little bits of grass that I had to pull out as I knitted through it! The second pair are almost done, and are made from an aran weight blue faced leicester. I had some undyed skeins and so I thought it would be fun to knit them up and then dye the socks once they’re finished. Then I can apply the liquid rubber to the soles so that they won’t skid everywhere!

Anyway, I hope you are all looking forward to Christmas and have a happy and healthy time. And if I’m not back before then, happy new year to you all! Here’s hoping that 2012 is filled with good things for us all!