Christmas is my favourite time of the year.
I hope I never stop getting excited by fairy lights, advent calendars and decorating the tree. I can watch Elf, Love Actually and The Santa Clause millions of times and still laugh at every joke even though I know what's coming, and I relish taking a highlighter to the TV guide to plan a suitable television schedule for the holiday period. I eagerly anticipate the arrival of Starbucks' famous red cups and take a photo of the Christmas tree in Covent Garden every time I walk past it, the novelty of seeing it clearly showing no signs of wearing off. You can't talk about Christmas without mentioning the food. Every family I know seems to stock up on nibbles and mince pies and Quality Street in December as if we're heading towards an apocalypse. It's a universally accepted fact that for the few days of Christmas all sense of calorie counting and being good goes totally out of the window, and there's nothing more dangerous to healthy eating than a spot of Christmas baking.
Since I've been home the oven has been working over time. I started today with a recipe from everyone's favourite supermarket (and general life-saver) Marks and Spencer. It's on their website as a Special Christmas Brownie, but it turned out as more of a dessert so I think it would be the perfect alternative to Christmas Pudding, if you're not really a fan and also a bit of a chocoholic.
