It's always a strange experience spending Christmas with your boyfriend's family for the first time. All the rituals – opening presents, eating too much etc. – are the same, but slightly different.
Or sometimes very different. I can still remember my surprise (and grave disappointment) when I discovered that my now husband's family celebrated Christmas WITHOUT Christmas pudding.
Apparently, none of the family liked it, so I have had to resort to bringing my own. I'd like to say making my own, but actually I buy it from a company in Devon called The Carved Angel – see picture.
The best compliment I can pay it is that it's almost as good as my mum's homemade Christmas pudding – which is high praise indeed. (I couldn't fit the recipe in this newsletter, but am putting it up on our website.)
However, there will be no The Carved Angel pudding for me this year because we're off to Australia next week for a proper Christmas.
Turkey and Christmas pudding in 40C heat…