'Wiggle The Dirt'

These were the lovely gifts I received from my friend Debbie. I love ephemera and this little packet for 'Wiggs Cleanser' she brought back from America is wonderful. I love the caption "wiggles the dirt". 'Profitable Poultry' a little book from the 1920s was also a great gift as this year I have taken on 3 little hens.

The four legged animals had a lovely Christmas even if Ella, my mum's dog did take over Josh's bed.

My lovely girl spoilt me with some beautiful gifts, she knows exactly what I like.

At Christmas my lovely girl and I always do some baking together as usually I am so busy we never seem to find the time. This year we made the Waitrose Delia Smith Christmas cake and I can honestly say it is one of the best I have tasted. I did feed it rather generously with brandy though. My lovely girl iced it and did an amazing job.

We also made chocolate orange cup cakes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. These were delicious, my only tip would be to halve the amount of topping mixture as there is always too much.

We both love tiramisu so we had a go at making our own.We used the recipe from the BBC food website, it was the Katie and Giancarlo Caldessi recipe and it was delicious. It actually got better over the couple of days we stored it.

This is the lovely wreath my friend at work made for me. It s completely bio-degradable as it is made on a cardboard ring wrapped with twigs. This has lasted amazingly well considering I had it a week or so before Christmas.

I like all the lights at night at Christmas, we always put berry red lights on our bay tree.

Tea lights are so pretty in the evening as well as lovely scented candles.

A few days before Christmas my lovely girl and I had a night away in London. There is always new street art to be seen near our hotel in Hoxton. This was a wall I hadn't seen before.

Liberty looked wonderful as usual

There are always plenty of amazing lights and decorations to see.

This was the view outside Selfridges.

We found the beautiful Leadenhall market for the first time.

It had a wonderful vibrant atmosphere.

As a special treat we went to Kensington Palace Orangery for afternoon tea. A tranquil little oasis in the middle of the madness that is London at Christmas.

A nice cup of tea and delicious cake is definitely just what's needed after a hard day's shopping !