Mince pies & Christmas food!

Here are a couple of the windows in Askrigg to give you a flavour of what they are about - the one with the trees is in a box and made with perfectly cut out shapes in layers of white card - if you look carefully you can just see the deer in the mist at the bottom and of course, Father Christmas flying across the sky looking for Askrigg (and your house of course!). If you google Askrigg Advent Windows it brings up the site - I am being a little cautious as, when I highlighted the windows on here and then put the website on the posters for people all over the world to see the artwork, they were all automatically directed to my blog - so now half of the village and their relatives know my excessive weight and insecurities! Most embarrassing when buying a pint of milk in the village shop. When the trees are all up and running (the festival, not the actual trees) I will photo some of those and put them on here too (thank you Kestrel for asking me to). I shall take this opportunity to be a good disciple and recommend you all pop along to your local church and find out what's going on over Christmas - you will feel so renewed, uplifted and happier if you sing a few carols, say a few prayers and generally have a little reflection.

Last night I decided to take the bull by the horns and stop just thinking about the window that I have to do by the weekend (I am the 20th). So, I put on some festive music and got out the scissors. As I started to tentatively snip, I got the urge to enjoy a glass of sloe gin whilst being creative. I had a lovely couple of hours sipping gin happily and amazingly none of the vital elements of the design fell out having snipped the wrong bit. I was most chuffed. Now I have the other half to do and then it will be ready for installation.

I have been thinking about festivities and excess and food. As I said a couple of days ago, I was brought up short thinking that, if I didn't watch it, I was going to be heading back up the ladder to misery pretty darn quick and I had to put the brakes on my excessive consumption. I have stuck with it and had a good couple of days (I have to confess to having just made 7 dozen mince pies and couldn't resist one, slightly warm, with my cup of tea as I sat down to write this - only one, but naughty). This is the problem. All the food at Christmas is so inviting, so easy to consume and so available. Not all of it is unhealthy (turkey) but alot of it is (mince pies, chocolates, christmas pud, chipolatas, roasties......the list goes on and on). According to the Daily Mail (where would I be for subject matter if it were not for my mindless paper?) we are preprogrammed to eat too much - it is high fat, low fibre food and doesn't fill us up for long enough. One solution they offer is to sit next to someone thin. They may have a point. They say it's because a thin person is quite likely to take a smaller portion and you won't want to seem like the prize porker (my words not theirs) but I would say that sitting next to my two gorgeous, slim, younger step-sisters makes me feel like the prize porker anyway, never mind how much they are eating. It plays havoc with your self esteem going to Dad's - beautiful step sisters aside, he has a huge, well lit mirror in the bathroom, from which there is no escape when you get out of the shower (actually, if I try a very hot shower it may steam it up). The only other alternative is to put your contact lenses in to turn on the shower and get it to the right temperature, then take them out, get undressed, shower, get out, dry, re-dress and only then put your lenses in - I am so short sighted that I will look like a blurry Rubenesque model having a shower). I also know to avoid too much alcohol (not only to avoid dancing on the tables at the pub) but after a few gins then wine, topped off with a couple of Baileys, all thoughts of diet or abstinence go out of the window - half a tin of Quality Street can be wolfed down in minutes, swilled down with further glasses of Baileys and all of January's calorie allowance. Must think of knees and hips.....joy, oh joy!

Anyway, must dash - off to Tescos/poundstretcher to find blue baubles for my "For those in peril on the sea" themed Christmas Tree, with a nod and a prayer towards Cornwall where Mum and Gran languish in uneasy misery, nursing ill health. Then going to an outdoor concert in Leyburn to support a very talented lad from Emily's school who has organised it - must avoid mince pies and mulled wine.

E xx