Angel Jem's City Cottage

There are 74 days left until Christmas!! This came as a bit of a surprise to me when I looked it up today, as I don't feel anywhere near ready for Christmas. Also, is it my imagination, or have shops not got Christmas in as early as last year? I went looking for wrapping paper last week and couldn't see the sort I was after in Tesco, W H Smiths or Asda. In fact, Asda had no Christmas paper and shelves still full of Hallowe'en! That struck me as rather odd, because when it comes to Back To School the shelves are cleared and replaced by Halloween before school even starts. I think I was hoping for something similar with Christmas. So, in an effort to get Christmas juices flowing, I thought I'd share a few things I'm looking to do or get for Christmas. 1. Visit Salisbury Museum. They have the Terry Pratchett exhibition on, until January 13th and my two sons are keen to go. We live in Liverpool, and there's a long distance between the two places, so we...

I have finally come to the end of the longest time off since I started working for Peter in the summer... 7 work days or just under 2 weeks off work!! I'd forgotten quite how blissful lie ins could be, or how wonderful not to shower/dress/move off the breakfast chair until past 11am (one day until past 2pm!) could be. It's back to work for me tomorrow, so nose to the grindstone again! But I thought I'd share some pictures of my Christmas, before I gradually begin stripping the place again. I'm usually quite blue at this time of year, but I'm hoping that hygge will carry me through. A good blend of outside walks and indoor treats to keep me happy. That, and a regular dose of hot chocolate. My gratitude journal/commonplace book this year. I finally... finally!!!... finished the Mermaid's Tail blanket. Tail & all! Girls' night out at the Liverpool International Horse Show. Three children and two guinea pigs. Sarah has set the table ...

Have you ever had one of those weeks? I don't need to ask; of course you have. And December is the worst for being busy, racing, living by lists, having too much to do and too little time to do it. Mr AJ ( Peter Kneale Solicitor ) has an exam on January 6th. It's about Roman Law and he has me typing up revision notes. For the past two weeks I have been over familiar with the paterfamilias, with the law on legacy, inheritance, the potestas, the ius civile and all sorts of obscure things that I never thought I'd need to know about. I don't need to know about them, truly, but I type slowly and one word at a time, the same way I read, and so typing becomes a form of learning, because I have to read and make sense of it as well as just follow his voice. Add to that a family still heart-broken over the death of a cute guinea pig; a solicitor's firm still wondering what government changes will do to our business and those across the country; and teenage children s...

This is my desktop at work.... no, not the one on the computer, although it could quite well have been, but my real desktop at work. The teapot and cup are from the charity shop, and are marked Royal Spencers, so I don't know where you'd get one. The tea is Spiced Orange from Hoogly Tea and is gorgeous, beautiful light and delicately spiced orange flavoured herbal infusion. I'll link to it, I promise I will. I want you to look beyond, to look behind. Can you see the golden box flickering in the sunlight? See the delicate wisps of tissue sticking out? How I wish we had smelly vision. I would offer it to you to rest your delicate nasal passages along and hear to say, " Mulled wine scented tissues ? Who on Earth thought up those? And who would buy them?" That second question is, alas, redundant. I would. And they do mulled wine scented toilet paper with pretty gold Christmas pattern on as well. I'm going back after payday. Indeed. My payday treat th...

I can't believe how far behind in Christmas shopping I feel this year! Normally by now I have lists ready and I'm well underway. I think part of the problem is that I haven't been able to get a sensible word from the Lads about what they want, and I am just not prepared to have a go at guessing myself. That, and the money flow is not the best. We are doing well, thank you, but working for oneself as a business, especially one like solicitor, means that you never know whether this month is a feast or a famine. I thought I would be giving up tutoring, but I still need to keep it up for the next year at least, if only to pay for Christmas. Having a small amount of cash every week just gives me the freedom to know that I will have x amount to spend on y day. It helps. Like Tesco says... every little helps. But this weekend I finally sat down, notebook and Evernote to hand, and planned the shopping. I still have no idea what the lads want, but they'll have to mak...

I love Christmas, a lot, and I promise to post my #christmasisntchristmaswithout posts even if I have to post them throughout the new year and back date them! But today will not be the day that I do that; today I am prepping for Christmas At Home. We spent Christmas Day at my brothers house (27 for dinner) and, although I loved it, I get over-faced by that many, and I ate my dinner sitting back from the table due to NO arm space at all, so my Christmas Dinner was not at all restful (or even really enjoyable; turkey is not made to eat off one's knees) but the craic was really lovely, and the time spent with everybody was worth the pain. Today my Mum and Dad are coming. We were going to have a turkey cooked by me.... but it smelled off. I mean really bleachy and not fresh, even though I only bought it on Christmas Eve and it was good until the 26th, so I won't risk anyone's health. Life is too short to eat bad turkey. That bird is binned and two small chickens bask in t...

Today is St Nicholas' Day, and over Europe children will have left out their shoes and hoped to find them filled with sweets and goodies. That's what St Nicholas does. Whether you take exception to the fact that Sinter Klass as we know him has been hijacked by the wheels of commercialism as a toy-pushing, over-eating exploiter of elf-kind, or think he's a jolly old St Nicholas, he is a big part of the season, especially when you're below a certain age. The magic of anticipation is brilliant, putting out a carrot and mince pie for the man, and waiting for the sound of bells and hoof prints because, hey, he really can fly and he really does get into the house and leave the gifts..... I love The Polar Express for many reasons, but I think I really like how it deals with the whole Big Man problem; for years I could not watch it because I didn't want my children to ask, or to think too deeply. It's back on our watch list now, and we talk more in ter...

It's the season to indulge, and nothing warms me up on a cold winter's day quite a beautifully as a thick, sweet hot chocolate with cream, marshmallows and chocolate dusting. I have friends on Facebook whose recent posts have been full of Black Forest chocolate from Costa. I've had one; it was too sweet. I like peppermint hot chocolate, and I think that was the right blend of tooth-aching sweetness and sharp-cutting taste. I'd like ginger hot chocolate, I think, or a good chocolate orange. But in the end, I just like the occasional warm mug of happiness. Which reminds me, I must go and change out the mugs from our red and blue everyday ones to our special Christmas mugs.

It is still beautiful that at this time of the year snail mail runs amok and delivers little envelopes full of sweet wishes. And I have such a load of conflicting feelings about them; they cost a lot of money and are only sent out of obligation (perhaps) but then again they are a valuable link with relatives and friends far away, and add to the feel of the house. I hate tacky cards. I don't do anything rude, nor comedy cartoonish. I dislike the cheap and nasty slightly heavier than paper photo cards that were so common when I was a teenager, and I don't like ostentatious cards that are designed to scream out about the worth of the sender (and I mean monetary worth, not self-value) and most of all I hate cards that are ready printed and sometimes never even get a name signed. If I'm sending a card, I will send a good one. I've cut back a lot on obligation cards; you know, things like the second cousin seven times removed whom you never see from one year to the next des...

From the first of November (yes, you read that right!) my car becomes a centre of everything kitsch if only musically; that's the day I get out my Christmas CD collection and begin to hum along to the old and new favourites I have found. I wrote about my favourite Christmas music as part of Blogmas last year, and the records I listed there are still very much on my playlist. But this year was a classic year for albums. Kylie had a new album out!! Kylie Christmas [CD+DVD] Now usually Pop Princesses don't get much listening to in my car, but I LOVE this album; it is kitsch, old fashioned, modern pop, pure Kylie, duets with the weirdest people and all wrapped up with a picture of a lady old enough to be me (she's 5 days younger, I think) but a LOT smaller! I love the opening song, 'It's the most wonderful time of the Year', and the song written by Chris Martin, 'Every Day's Like Christmas', but I really love her duet of 'Only You' with James ...

Circles stand for eternity; candles stand for light in the depths of the darkest winter; evergreen decorations stand for life in the middle of the sere and grey dead of winter and the four candles each stand in a corner of the world as a symbol of the unity of the world under God's care. The wreath stretches back to pagan times; it's another one of those great traditions from the past that Christianity appropriated and made its own. I bought our wreath when I was first employed at a school that held a traditional Prizegiving in Liverpool Cathedral, and we have had it on our dining table every December since. Sometimes I am traditional enough to have purple candles for three Sundays and a pink one for the third Sunday (Gaudete Sunday; the week of joy) with a plain white one for Christmas Day itself. Other years I have red candles for the Sundays and white for Christmas. This year my daughter has worked her magic again, and brought a beautiful blue candle from Co...

I'm going to try to post everyday in December (again) and to record my Christmas through the things that make Christmas special to me. I'll do my best! I'll tag them #christmasisn'tchristmaswithout and put the photos on Instagram as well (you can find me on there as angeljem5 ) Today; well, for the 1st of December it must be advent calendars. I love them, I have loads, but every year I like to try out a different one. This year I treated myself to the Yankee Candle advent from Dobbies, every day a new tealight! And today was the first of the 24; a lovely cinnamon heavy scent that is even now burning brightly in my present off my daughter, who spent last weekend in Germany on a school trip, haunting the markets and feasting on gingerbread. She bought me a porcelain dome, with a small saucer beneath to hold the candle. When you light the flame it shines through the thinnest parts of the dome, giving a beautiful effect of light and shade. Advent calenda...

And breathe. I say that to myself a lot at the moment. A lot over this weekend, especially, when a bug wiped me out for Friday and Saturday meaning any plans I had for a quiet Christmas putter in my house were wiped out. No slow amble around a supermarket looking for red candles for my Advent wreath, no pootling through the advent chest to find and choose which calendars made the cut this year and filling them with gold-wrapped chocolate gingers, no slow sipping of a Costa mulled wine. Oh, no! My Saturday was passed on the sofa, plain builders in hand, snuggling 'neath a quilt and checking that everybody else was cold as well, or was it just me? (it was; everybody else was toasty warm) And of course that means I am a weekend behind in any house preparations I wanted to make. My settee will not now be pulled out and carefully cleaned behind before the tree takes centre stage and makes housework redundant. My kitchen cupboards will be dirty and unlined as I cram the December goodi...

What am I reading this week? I'm reading a strange book called A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray. Well, I say strange, but I mean good. I picked it up as a recommendation from Waterstones or Richard and Judy, one of my summer reading list that I am still working my way through. I didn't realise that it was about the Mormons, not in Utah but in Lancashire and that I would be picturing the places in the novel as I read. Queens Drive? Yes, I drive there every day. Preston, Southport, check. Been there. But the setting is actually immaterial to the story. Issy Bradley dies of meningitis and her family have to deal with this in however they can.  For Dad, that's the certain sure knowledge that they will meet again in heaven. For the others, that knowledge is not so certain, and neither is their attitude to the Mormon faith. It's a first novel, but I hope it won't be the last. I have really enjoyed it. I know more about Mormonism, and though I would never ...

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year to us all! It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul. Caroline Kennedy Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_christmas.html#zheJHKOE4RmUXZj6.99 Edited; I need to record my children more before they grow up completely. Here's the collage of Christmas Day 2014. Look at the wrapping paper centre (there was more all over the floor!) and my parents who came to me for Christmas for the First Time Ever. Did I enjoy myself? You betcha!

I'm guessing my Christmas Eve this year is pretty much like anybody else's if you've got Christmas dinner to cook the next day. I want as little as possible to do on Christmas Day so I plan.. plan and plan a bit more. My list this year ran; 11am make stollen dough ( Paul Hollywood's recipe ) and leave to rise. 11.30 make biscotti. Chocolate orange and cherry in the sort of style of the Hairy Bikers' Chocolate Orange and cranberry. Noon Stollen stage 2; incorporate marzipan and swirl into shape. Leave to prove. 1pm bake the stollen. Watch the daughter decorate her Christmas cake with buttercream icing and wonder how she can get quite so green in 5 minutes. 2pm make the chocolate mousse cake. Put the pork on to roast. 3pm prep the veg; brussels sprouts, carrot sticks, carrot and swede mash chunks, broccoli cauliflower cheese cooked ready to baking stage, parsnips, sausage and stuffing balls wrapped in bacon. 4 or 5pm prep the turkey...