Issy

Ooh, sounds delicious. Haggis, neeps and tatties, as we didn’t do it last week. (Kids had sausages but I still lost a not inconsiderable amount of haggis to the two year old.) Gamay. Ardbeg for later.

Wednesdays are Tom the Pizza Man days - woe betide us if we missed it. Margarita with ham for the wee ones; something loaded with ham, olives, mushrooms and red onions for me. Husband on a health kick, so he’s got tom yum soup from Charlie the Fish Man (also a venerated Wednesday tradition). Beer.

I shared this with some friends who I thought would be easy converts. It rapidly descended into a conversation about what other kind of preserves would be acceptable offerings. And this is how schisms develop.

Himself is finalising roast short rib with the trimmings (forgot it was Burns Night, otherwise would’ve gone full HN&T). I’m drying out after bathing the toddlers with the last of the Montepulciano.

Intriguing. Just goes to show how hard the brain can work to convince itself “This is ok, actually. No, really it is.”

Or they think they’re Sarah Wynn Williams and can get a book out of it.

Do they even have any external comms/stakeholder engagement people any more? Thought they’d scrapped the comms teams a long time ago

Earlier this year I bought a camera trap so I could figure out where foxes were getting into the garden. 8yo son, sceptical of Father Christmas, has borrowed it for tonight.

So...obviously I've now bought a Santa outfit. Your move, boy.

Think I’m going to need something a lot stronger than that!

*waves* last media sell-in of the year. Crawling to the finish line.

NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport It all started in 1955 with a misprint in a Colorado newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret military hotline. Shoup played along with the tiny voice who called, and a tradition was born.

It could just be the fact it’s been a VERY long year, but this is just the loveliest thing: www.npr.org/2014/12/19/3...

Twitter screenshot, 23 December 2016 (and god knows we needed a laugh at the end of that year): Gerry Adams, “This house is like Santa's Grotto. Takes half an hour 2 switch off fairy lights and assorted Yule illuminations. Feel like a grinch now.” Reply from ‘Eddielzzard'sBeret’: “Surely you know someone who can fit a timer.”

Well, happy anniversary to one of the finest of festive exchanges

Press office. Every time.

Obviously I’m annoyed that my cab home is taking ages (it’s a Wednesday! It’s half eleven! The streets should be empty!) but I am also annoyed that the pavements of central London are half empty (it’s the first week of Christmas party season: where is everyone?).

A large, shallow white bowl with a blue rim containing my dinner: monkfish with a stew of black eyed beans, red peppers and tomatoes, and salad.

I took a picture! Monkfish with black eyes beans, tomatoes, red peppers and chorizo; dusted with espelette pepper in a futile attempt to stop the toddler nicking half my fish. Salad. Albariño, cos it’s finally sodding Friday. Tiramisu once the kids were in bed.

The nearly two year old is obsessed with diggers and points them out at every opportunity. He often drops the ‘d’, which is fine. But when he says “igger igger igger” over and over, there’s a tendency for a ‘n’ to somehow appear. Which is, er, less fine.

Cracked even sooner than I expected. Have shoved an ice cube in the glass and it’s pretty drinkable. Who knew.

Macaroni cheese for the little ones. Steak and mushroom sandwiches for the bigger ones. Himself is having beer. I can’t yet bring myself to open the bottle of mediocre red the in-laws brought yesterday, but I’ll probably give in at some point.

Being on the petite side, I’ve found there’s normally enough extra fabric to accommodate - I have a great fit and flare dress from there that definitely wouldn’t work if I was a normal height!

HARD recommend for Uniqlo (not least for the fact they hem for you), M&S petite, and Levi’s. The Levi outlet in Swindon had the largest selection of short leg jeans I have ever seen.

Moved house earlier in the year and it slipped my mind to tell them about the change of ownership. When I got round to it after a couple of months they claimed I owed them £670,000 for 10 weeks’ supply.

They were good - as you’d expect when I can buy them from the farm they were raised on, less than 10 miles from my house. The countryside has some perks… Hope you’re feeling better today!

Lamb chops bought from the farm yesterday (little ones for the kids, Barnsley chops for me and him). Potatoes. Whatever veg is left in the fridge. The bottle of Montepulciano I bought on Friday night and is inexplicably still unopened.

I followed this with interest as I’m almost exactly the same age, size and number of kids… Could’ve sworn someone had recommended Levi’s - I popped into an outlet store at the weekend and came out with two pairs. Absolute strong recommend for the 724.

In this household, the mummies on the bus go “smash the patriarchy”. It clearly doesn’t scan, but I can live with that.

Wrong on almost every level. Kids had ham, chips and peas. We had anchovy, tomato and pine nut pasta, with cavolo Nero and pumpkin seeds on the side. A third of a bottle of pinot Gris that had been abandoned in the fridge. V tasty, even if the toddler ended up eating most of my penne.

Not sure. Husband is cooking a ham, so that in some form. Probably with pasta to keep the kids happy. Last of the Rioja. Might raid the treat cupboard for pud.

Offering a smoked mackerel, pickled red onion and beetroot sandwich in an office canteen is an act of war.

😂 husband made them on Sunday, so all he had to do was make the sauce tonight. Wouldn’t’ve had the energy otherwise!

Ooh. Sounds bloody delicious. We had meatballs and spaghetti and Chianti. I’ll probably nick the last Mars bar ice cream once the baby is finally asleep.