A work in progress...

I so desperately wanted today's blip to be of something exciting from the Big CIty. Some lights, perhaps, or excited faces at the theatre, or at least something from our train journey in... It wasn't to be. The trains were against us, so we drove. The weather was against us, so we didn't go for a walk in the city or see any lights. The theatre was against us, no photography allowed. So instead here's a picture from earlier this evening of my first ever Christmas cake about to be marzipanned. Thank you, Gailywaily, for noticing how tidy my kitchen still is. This is a most unnatural state, and cannot possibly last. I put it down to the fact that we were out for most of today...

The show itself was wonderful. Magical. As you'd expect. At least, the first half was. Unfortunately they had some kind of unexplained "technical issues" during the interval, which meant that it went on for what felt like an eternity (probably more like half an hour, to be fair) - sadly long enough for the spell to be broken, the toddlers (ours, and other people's) to grow restless, and for the second half to feel a little flat. Despite the extra flying and extra dancing. Never mind - both Little G and Littler G declared "the scary one" (Jack Frost - not featured in either the book or the film) to be their favourite bit, and he didn't show up until the second half, so it can't have been all bad. And the advantage of having driven down was that both of them could have a sleep in the car on the way home, which was almost certainly just as well.

Now I have finished wrapping the last presents, made some soup for tomorrow's tea, given the oven a cursory clean, and have poured a glass of you-know-what to enjoy the second part of the Strictly final. Cheers everybody.