If I had not had my friends in the skills exchange yesterday would not have been half as successful.

Every year a group of us sing carols in the road around us in aid of the Friary drop in centre. This tradition is probably about 10 years old and more and more families are joining us in this fun and worthwhile activity. So yesterday was the day. Meet at our house at 5pm with some warm drink and mince pies afterwards

Sarah H made a large jar of delicious mince meat which I used to make some mini mince pies They were easy to make and extremely more'ish, as a matter of fact, I had to make another 24 as most were eaten before the Carol Singers arrived later in the afternoon. To my surpise 43 singers appeared filling every inch of our hall, so you can also imagine how pleased I was with the scrumptious home made mince pies Carol W dropped off earlier in the day.

A few days ago Lorraine sent me an email of the (extremely easy) butternut/carrot soup. I did not have the Chinese 5 spice that was required, so Lorraine on her way to a friend very kindly dropped it in. Boy was I pleased that I had loads of carrots, a butternut squash and the spice and that the soup was that easy to make. I managed to feed the lot without any trouble! I would not have been able to do this by myself in my wildest dreams and still enjoy the evening the way we did. I would like to thank everyone involved for making it all happen. Merry Christmas to you all!