It's beginning to look a lot like...well you know

Winter greetings from the Midlands!

The weeks leading up to Christmas have been filled with funding  applications, ethics approval forms, emails, reading, and meetings. Somewhere in between all of these things, I've managed to eek out a bit of holiday spirit. Please enjoy.

Jeremy and I spent a lovely day in Nottingham. We walked around the Christmas Market in the centre of town several times.

We ended up treating ourselves to some hot chocolate and snow cakes. (Snow cakes are really just chocolate covered marshmallows. They had lots of different flavours like Toblerone, tiramisu, and cinnamon.)

The market at night was very pretty.

There was even an ice skating rink. Though Jeremy boasted of his skating chops, I didn't put him to the test; mainly because I am an appalling skater.

We did however, take this very nice selfie.

Queens Road in Leicester all lit up at night. 

In the middle of town in Leicester, they had this lovely display of the story of Mr. Toad. Some of the figures moved.

Check out the lovely weasels! I know they are the bad guys in the story, but I am still their biggest fan. 

There is Mr. Toad and Badger

The Town Hall was lit up to the nines!

It was all very beautiful...

...and shiny!

Leicester has another large tree in the centre of town where all the shops are. 

The Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower was all lit up behind the tree as well.

There were lots of chalk messages on the ground around the tree. Mainly they were anti-war and anti-hate messages about Syria and the refugees. It was lovely to see such an outpouring of support for those who had been forced from their homes.

What is Christmastime without baking cookies?

I have learned a lot of the Dutch names for spices from using Ceciel's containers. Here we have Nutmeg, Ginger, and Cinnamon.

Mount Gingerbread

The recipe called for molasses. After staring at the shelves in the Sainsbury's for a good ten minutes, I googled black treacle on my phone and discovered that I could use this instead.

Even my camera began to go into a sugar haze from this stuff!

The batter came out perfectly!

I let the dough chill for about an hour in the refrigerator. 

What? T-Rexes are Christmasy!

I was so glad the cookies came out so well. I let them cool overnight.

Alright, so I'm not the most accomplished icer in the world but I have to say I got a lot better as I went on. 

See this one isn't terrible!

And this T-Rex is positively adorable.

Thanks for reading! Happy holidays!