We had the best Christmas we could this year, and missed my mom terribly every second of it.
I know it would have made her so happy to see the kids with my dad, and she would have laughed a lot at how big and smart and silly the kids are.
We did a traditional dinner this year, turkey and all the trimmings, and I patted myself on the back for how perfectly the turkey came out.
The highlight for me was the homemade mince tarts - my favorite. We used the recipe from Paul Hollywood's 100 Breads which is easy - the pastry is so simple even I can't mess it up, and the filling is simply jarred mince with some apples and mandarin oranges stirred in. We left out the oranges because my dad didnt' like the sound of that, but I'd like to try it sometime. I forgot to dust them with sugar, so there they are naked on the right in the photo below.
The ones on the right were a Christmas Eve gift from a thoughtful person, and we had fun at Christmas dinner tasting them both and pretending we were judges on a baking show trying to pick the winner. It was super close, but thankfully mine squeaked out a victory.
