For me food is a real pleasure in life.
And Christmas is the perfect excuse to cram in as much as my body can take!
For weeks I have been piling Yule logs, cracker snacks and tubs of chocolates in my trolley.
But it is almost time for the main event — Christmas dinner.
We keep things fairly traditional in our family and like to share the jobs out so my mum is stuck making absolutely everything.
My sister is responsible for starters and we usually have a soup option, pate and oatcakes or prawn cocktail.
She varies her soup each year and makes a delicious pate.
The prawns are always juicy king prawns and the sauce is a joint effort — we all have to taste is and judge if it needs more ketchup, mayo or brandy!
Mum is the queen of Christmas dinner and always knocks out a fabulous feast.
There is usually a choice of turkey, beef or ham but this year we are ditching the beef to save having a meat mountain to overcome in the days after.
She always tries to make the veg a bit fancy — bacon in the sprouts, buttery mash and honey on the carrots — but her peace de resistance is her roasties.
You’ll never find a potato with a crunchier crust and fluffier centre than my mum’s beauties.
Although not strictly part of a turkey dinner we always have Yorkshires and this year I’ve made them in advance and popped them in the freezer, ready to be reheated.
In the past mum’s only downfall has been removing the giant bird from the oven.
One year her and my brother-in-law sent the cooked meat skittering across the kitchen floor . . . they didn’t tell us until we’d all eaten it!
Pudding is my domain.
Over the years I’ve made trifle, figgy pudding, cheesecake, chocolate pudding and many others.
The jury is still out on what we’ll have this year — mum has requested lemon cheesecake and tiramisu, my husband wants trifle and the kids want chocolate cake.
Hopefully we get something picked before I do my big shop —\!q online of course, I refuse to drag a toddler round the supermarket in the days before Christmas!
