What I did for Christmas...!

On Christmas Day Robert does all the cooking. This doesn't mean that he doesn't cook at any other time of the year but I am rather proud of the way in which I have managed to persuade him that it is tradition for him to cook every Christmas Day.



I was sent out to get the veg from the garden so we had beetroot...



...brussel sprouts...plus our own tatties. How ace is that!



Starter was some mushrooms cooked in truffle butter with black pudding. Fine (and no, we're not vegetarian)!



Main course was a roast duck, roast tatties, sausagemeat stuffing, roast beetroot, brussel sprouts with crispy bacon and smoked garlic, and cranberry gravy.



Of course, just because my honey cooks it doesn't mean that he's very good in the cleaning up after himself as he goes. Think he takes after Hugh in that department.



We even managed to get some stock out of the duck carcass which has been made into roasted parsnip soup (I like roasting veg in case you hadn't guessed).



So - pressies. I did pretty well but as I've found it does help to tell folk exactly what it is that you'd like and that saves an awful lot of hassle. Robert got me some Louisa Harding wool which is being transformed into "Heather" from the Louisa Harding book. Very pretty.



From my Mum I got a drop spindle (need lessons from Theresa on how to acutally work it like)...



A weaving loom...well, when your surname is Heddle you have to have a piece of craft equipment that is named after your family name. It's like a no-brainer really isn't it?



She got me a learn to crochet book as well. The dyeing book is from Vicki. I just need to start collecting bits and pieces to start dyeing with.



And Mum got me some sparkly eyelash yarn as well. I foresee gauntlets. My Dad did get me a dressmaker's dummy but that's going to have to go back to get swapped for another one as they sent the medium size and I'm more of a petite. I'm going to be having a majorly crafty year ahead of me.