Belated Christmas and New Year 2015-2016

This is a bit belated, but never mind.  We had sparklers and an Asda Silver Fountain in our back garden for new year:

This was our tree.  A real tree that had to be watered - as usual.  We placed it in our kitchen this year and it was topped with Woody from This is England for a while and then with Kanye West (would that have anything to do with our teenage son?).  We like to choose something topical as the fairy for the top of the tree and both these men were a good idea.  Oh, I can see that the mince pies made an appearance - they must have been just out of the oven when this photo was taken.

We used white lights.  My husband had to go to Homebase to get another set as ours weren't working - they only have to function once a year.  I also like the multi-coloured ones, but I'm really not keen on those blue ones.

A photo of my father carving the Xmas turkey.  We had a lovely lunch at my parents, near Chagford, cooked by my mother.  All the trimmings and plenty of it.  Just lovely.  And no trouble at all!

I made two batches of mince pies - with one I used my own pastry and shop bought mincemeat and the other I used shop-bought pastry and homemade (by someone else) mincemeat.  They were both good - I think this allayed my fears of pastry a little - I just put all the ingredients in the kitchen blender and then refrigerate for half an hour or so before using, and it was easy and fine - but I know from previous attempts that pastry can be tricky.

Although connossieurs thought the homemade pastry was better - there wasn't a huge difference. I always top mince pies with 'Nigella' stars - they are appreciated more than pie lids, use less pastry and are much less fiddly as they can be 'plonked' on the top rather than carefully sealed and shaped.

The whole festive period was spent in Devon.  I enjoyed many other festive treats, but was too greedy to take any photos of them!