Christmas Eve

I woke up at 4am today. Of course, having a day off means I wake up early anyway! But it's Christmas Eve, so I'm happy. I had some panettone and tea and watched the end of the Hollyoaks omnibus. Then I read this beautiful article by one of my favourite people on Twitter, Ian McMillan. It's about why he prefers Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. Although my memories are different from his (I'm not quite old enough to remember Apollo 8), I agree that the magic of Christmas is in today.

So I'll be meeting my lovely friend in our usual cafe this afternoon. We usually meet on Christmas Eve apart from a few years when illness or travel have got in the way. We must have spent our first Christmas Eve together in 1995 when we first started working on Sundays at Boots in Bromley, and Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday that year. I remember making a bet with someone that I would say "Happy Christmas" to every single customer I served, and I did. I'm not sure I would have been so perky if I'd worked in the shop full time and been subjected to the same Christmas CD all throughout December!

We usually swap presents today, but this year I wanted to make her up an advent calendar, so she got hers early. I enjoyed planning what to put in each drawer, but then as I stuffed them, I saw there was a 25 as well. I think I ended up swapping days 24 and 25 so she would get the best treat on Christmas morning.

Have a lovely Christmas!

The Walking Dead gingerbread hospital

It's been five years since my first and only attempt to make a gingerbread house. I had enough gingerbread that time to make two small houses - one for my close friend who I nearly always meet for a drink on Christmas Eve, and one for my sister.

This year a different friend had to cancel her 40th birthday party because her little boy was ill in hospital. She said she felt like Daryl from The Walking Dead when he was trapped in the Sanctuary and forced to listen to Easy Street over and over - because another family in the same ward kept playing Three Little Kittens to soothe their poorly girl.

Once her boy was feeling better and her girl was off school for the holidays (and I was on holiday from one of my jobs, working at a school), we planned to meet up for a belated birthday/early Christmas lunch. I had an idea of making a gingerbread hospital (like the one Rick wakes up in during the first episode) on the outside that is the Sanctuary on the inside.

As ever, my ideas are usually better in theory than in practice, but hey - it kind of worked and my friend seemed to get what it was. Although the figure inside which was meant to be her as Daryl needed some definition for the arms and folded legs - she thought it was a handbag. Whoops.

You might be able to spot the record player, the character Jesus (who would have had brown hair if I had brown icing), Lucille, and a random star that looks more like a spider's web.

What was impressive to me is that I managed to carry it on two crowded trains to her flat without it collapsing. Royal icing is an amazing invention! (No, I don't make my own, as my Great British Bake Off book recommended. Gingerbread buildings take long enough to make without whisking egg whites as well.)

And if you like torturing yourself, here's a 30-minute loop of Easy Street.