Christmas sorted, and more nice surprises

 We got to the supermarket at 07.30 (it opens at 06.00) and it was virtually empty - there were more staff than shoppers, what a surprise.  I got everything I needed for Christmas and beyond.....I spent about double my average week's shop but reckon what I bought will last for 3 or 4 weeks, with good planning.  Husband had ummed and ahhed for the past couple of weeks about what meat he wants for the Christmas period - he finally settled on gammon and pork loin.  I was going to make the wartime Mock Turkey from Carolyn's blog for myself, but read a review in the papers a couple of days ago.....someone had tried and rated several of the veggie and vegan Christmas lunch choices.  Most of the 'fake meat' type ones got the thumbs down (I have to say any type of fake meat gets the thumbs down from me, I'm not keen on them at all) - they were either too bland or had a strange texture, according to the tester.  However, a Lidl vegan Sage, Onion and Hazelnut festive nut roast got rave reviews, and is exactly the kind of thing I like.  So that's what I'm having for my Christmas lunch, along with all the normal veggies.  We don't eat Christmas pudding - too rich and heavy - but might have a slice of lemon cheesecake, or just cheese & crackers.

Speaking of cheese....the lovely B, my American reader who gifted me all those lovely cheeses, asked which ones they were.  4 different cheeses - a Cashel Blue (an Irish semi soft blue cheese), Cenarth Brie (Welsh brie), Spenwood (a hard ewe's milk cheese that's similar to Manchego or Pecorino) and a mature cheddar with chilli & tomato in a red rind.  I've tried a little of each and they're all delicious!

I cooked husband's gammon yesterday in the Multichef, it's been sliced and frozen, 8 meals worth - I won't have room to cook that and all the veggies and stuffing and my nut roast in the air fryer or Multichef on the day, so I'm pre-cooking and freezing some things to be reheated in the microwave on Christmas day.

I sat yesterday afternoon with next year's calendar, writing birthdays/anniversaries, black bin days and some advance appointments on it.  Now I just need to decide where it's going up on the wall!

Oh, we had another pleasant surprise yesterday - a hand-delivered letter containing a £10 note put through the door by the village church.  Apparently, a local wealthy landowner, who died some years ago, left a sum of money to be gifted to 'good causes' for the village, the recipients to be decided by the church and the parish council every year, until the money runs out.  Well, this year it was decided that the residents of the two sheltered housing schemes here are the lucky recipients, so all of us here in our close and the adjoining one have got a Christmas box of £10 each household.  How lovely.  That, along with the (free) Christmas buffet put on by the Housing Association the other day, shows what a lovely village we've moved to - we never got so much as a Christmas card from our previous landlords in all the years we lived there.

And one of our lovely neighbours from the old house is coming to visit us tomorrow, that'll be nice.