Been travellin'

Oh my goodness, didn't the round the world blog work well? I'm so impressed - what a great idea that was! So interesting to see so many different parts of the world, so many varied lifestyles with one common interest - scrapbooking!

I have been overwhelmed by the kind messages left on my blog and will be replying when I have time but today is so horrendously horrible weatherwise that we are decorating our hallway and I don't think my poor husband will appreciate me spending the next hour on the computer while he singlehandedly does the wallpapering.

Today I have also made my Christmas pudding and here's the proof!All ready to go into the steamer for 8 hours. Started it off last night and had the annual 'make a wish while you give it a stir' tradition. When I was little my mum used to put little charms into the Christmas pudding. They were shaped like little horseshoes and four leaf clovers etc. I remember them so well, they used to come sewn onto a cardboard sheet and it was my job to cut up pieces of greaseproof paper to wrap them in individually and drop them into the pudding mix. Haven't seen them in the shops for years so maybe I am showing my age by mentioning this! My mum always made several puddings for various members of the family, she was such a good cook and enjoyed her baking. When she died, it was hard for my sister and I to have to cook our own puddings, it was just another one of those moments that brings home to you the little things that you miss. Do you know, we have NEVER found her pudding recipe! We have scoured her cookery books and found many recipes with tell tale signs of having been used - splashes of mixture sticking pages together - and pencil alterations to quantities or timings but we cannot find the one recipe she used. Even if we found it, I'm guessing it still wouldn't compare to hers though!