Getting to know Us – Festive edition

Ahhh, we’ve been tagged by our gorgeous pal Smelly over at Smelly Socks and Garden Peas. We don’t really know where the tag came from but we are honoured to be tagged. We look forward to sharing ourselves with you a bit more, and we cannot wait to hear more about some of you and get to know you a little better.

Thank you!

First things first – a big fat THANK YOU to Smelly for the tag. We have been a little silent lately, as work has taken over. It’s the end of the year, schools are wrapping up, writing deadlines need to be met before the Christmas break and shooting schedules are mental crazy busy as we hurry to make most of the dry weather before the years out! We have said it before and we’ll say it again; we adore Smelly and everything she writes. Her blog is full of anecdotal posts that often have us splitting our sides with laughter (she really should consider stand up) or sitting with a deep warm pain as she beautifully describes how she deals with life and loss. Don’t just take our word for it – pop along to her blog, it’s worth checking out.

And if you want to get to know Smelly a little bit better, well, you can read her post here!

Questions and answers

What is your favourite winter treat?

B here! So, after a little thought, I realised my favourite winter treat is a deep, warm, crumbling mince pie, with cream. I know, I know, sounds obvious. But, a mince pie is one of those treats that hit’s me after I have it. I’ll see them in the shops, usually Nero, looking delicious with a star pastry top, dusted lightly with icing sugar, and I think to myself, shall I, shall I not, and before I know it my fingers have picked one up, placed it on the counter and I am paying for it. Once I unwrap and eat it – it is a no brainer and I always wonder why my head says no and my heart just seems to know that I will enjoy it!

My latest favourite version of a mince pie is the Heston Blumenthal version, found in Waitrose. I write a little bit about these particular mince pies here.

What Christmas traditions do you celebrate?

C here! We wrote a whole post about Christmas traditions in our Christmas Collaborations Series, last year. The series was extraordinary, as we got together with some of our favourite bloggers to bring a kind ‘Blogmas’ the T.B.C way. You can read all the fabulous posts here. Here is a little paragraph from my actual post for the series;

Nowadays and especially now, my Christmas is a lot more subdued. It’s just me and my daughter. She’s almost a teenager, so the magic of Christmas is not phone calls from Santa and Reindeer hooves. It’s the rituals; the cups of tea and the bin bags. The radio on and the sound of potatoes hitting the hot fat. We watch Elf every Christmas eve and drink hot chocolate. My own daughter is now the night owl, so we sit up together and talk. It’s a different Christmas to the one I grew up with, but it’s the rituals we remember and the ones we create, that makes the magic that will stay with us for generations. 

You can read the rest of the post here!

Are you wishing for snow this year?

T here! I actually live in Scotland and we get our fair share of snow. So I am actually wishing for it to snow over Christmas, and if not over Christmas – then certainly on Christmas day itself. It makes everything look so pretty and cosy. The big fat snowflakes falling outside, whilst you sit inside, with the heating on, eating mums Christmas curry watching your favourite Christmas movie; magical! Moves us nicely on to the next question.

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

T here, again! Favourite Christmas movie has got to be Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers. I know, its not a typical Christmas movie – it’s not one of the popular ones that make their way on the Christmas schedule every year. But it’s one that reminds me of my childhood. I was about 10 and it was a movie that my uncle introduced to me one Christmas. It became bit of a Christmas tradition there on after. I love it, it’s silly, funny, well acted – just a feel good movie and I love watching it with my uncle.

Have you ever built a gingerbread house? What is your technique?

B here! Ummmmm…yes! But not from scratch. One of my nieces brought one over to our house last Christmas. It was shop bought, so we had all the bits and bobs we just needed to decorate and glue the ginger bread biscuits together. Needless to say it was a flop. Like, literally a flop. I think we put too much icing sugar on, or what ever the glue was that holds in all place. It all just slipped and slid apart. So we have no advice to offer you here, except to just eat it rather than make it! HA! x

What is your favourite hot chocolate?

C here – my hot chocolate flavour would have to be Orange. Cream and Marshmallow on top, thank you very much. Don’t know why Orange, particularly but it just really like it.

B here – mine has got to be Cadbury’s original and I really have to be in the mood for it! With cream don’t mind too much about marshmallow. Though, Costa do a Ruby Hot Chocolate, with all the trimmings… it’s red (obviously) but – I am not too sure on the flavour. Sometimes that hits the spot… not always – like coffee!

T here – I love me an original chocolate-ly hot chocolate, and I also really have to be in the mood for it!!! Oh with all the trimmings!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What gift are you hoping to get this year?

B again… nothing really. I know this sounds really twee, righteous and perhaps idealistic – but nothing in this material world could make my Christmas. What I do wish for however, is the end of Boris and his cronies in government. Our country is spiralling into a far right fascist state and I cannot bear it. I want a fairer and more respectable society. I want to feel pride in being able to call myself British (and Indian for that matter, but the Indian Government has taken that away too).

It is not a pipe dream – all it requires is that we all think before we speak and put ourselves in the shoes of those who have far far less than us. That the language around people who are distressed, traumatised and broken changes from Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Spongers and the like to people who need our help. That we as humans – do our duty towards one another; treat each other with love, care and compassion. Surely that IS the only message of Christmas!

Photo by Gelgas Airlangga on Pexels.com

What is your warmest winter time memory?

There have been so many; the time I came home from Uni having broken up with someone I was seeing and thinking like my whole world had crumbled. It was my first relationship, I had no idea that someone I thought I loved so dearly, could hurt me so deeply. But that Christmas I was surrounded by my family, who loved me, no matter what. They held me, they comforted me, they made me laugh, my father hugged me so tight I could feel his pain, for me. My mother fed me till my heart and soul were full. She nourished me with her love and I knew that my place was in the hands and hearts of those who really cared for me. I would go back to the relationship a few more times before I realised my actual worth and the fact that I came from an intensely loving family.

I loved Christmas’s at my Uncles with all my cousins. We would play games and mess about with our gifts all day until it was time to eat, but not before watching the Queens speech and tuning into the Eastenders Christmas special. We loved this bit, especially. Our two favourite years were when the Max Branning and Stacey Slater affair was revealed with poor Tanya watching it unfold on a home video, right before her eyes. And… the episode where Sonia’s Jamie died in hospital after a car crash. All of us (about 20 of us) sat there on the sofa, sprawled across the floor or sitting on extra chairs brought in, crying our eyes out as Jamie’s life slipped away. I loved it.

Now, it’s mainly just immediate family. Not my uncle and cousins – things happen, families fall out. But we move on and we find love, peace and comfort in other relations and it is still brilliant, if not more so. The relationships are real, closer and rely on nothing but love and respect. Brothers and sisters, brought up with integrity and decency. Yes, sure there is sibling rivalry but we are tight as a unit. Both my nieces are witness to love that surrounds them and us and we are all good for it!

This year we’ll be back at my sisters. And it’s going to be gorgeous. Her extension means they have a huge kitchen where all the food will be laid out. There will be enough room at the inn for all and more to enjoy the intimacy of familial love. They have two Christmas tree’s, one in each room and a dog who is just adorable. I cannot wait!

How about you?

I would totally love to hear some festive facts about anyone who’s reading this. But in particular, I’d like to tag:

Joey at Concealed Voices

Bill at a_silly_place

Monty at Monty Scribbles

The Yorkshire Dreamer at The Yorkshire Dreamer

Carson at Carson Bohdi

Michelle at Boomer Eco Crusader

Carl Baker at a blokes eye view

Have a beautiful Christmas and here’s to a fantatsic 2022 – may we be successful in all our endeavours. Love and Peace.

With love, always…

T.B.C…