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Hello Sweeties

I hope you are all doing well... just a short note

to let you all know that I won’t be online for the

next 2 weeks… I m flying back home to Namibia

on Wednesday and there is still a lot I need to do…

I will get back to all of you once I am settled in…

take care and have a blessed holiday season…

Lotsa hugs and kisses

Marija

Christmas Time

Fa la, la, la, la

Fa la, la, la, la, la la...

When I was young every Christmas Eve

I could not sleep

Trying to catch that old St. Nick

Leaving presents under my tree

And every year I'd fall asleep laying in my bed

Dreaming of a million sugarplums

Dancing in my head

Oh how much joy it is at Christmas time

The spirit of giving is in our lives, oh

Oh, how much joy it brings to see the ones you love

This year's gonna be the best Christmas because

There'll be family and Christmas cheer

Peace and goodwill to all men

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home

Sneaking a kiss under the mistletoe

I want a white Christmas so let it snow

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home

Friends come together as we decorate the tree

This is the time of year to live in harmony, oh

Angels watch over as we put the kids to sleep

And when they awake their smiling faces

Make it all complete, oh

This is the holiday you're with the family

We put aside our differences and let it be, oh

Oh, how much fun it is to give and to receive

This time of year, love is all we need

There'll be family and Christmas cheer

Peace and goodwill to all men

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home

Sneaking a kiss under the mistletoe

I want a white Christmas so let it snow

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home

Rap:

Open your heart now

This is the time for us to give

The world needs love now

So live and let live, families all here

The spirit is good cheer, the sound of carolers

Ringing sweet in my ear, everything is all fine

You know why, it's Christmas time, what?

Oh how much joy it is at Christmas time

The spirit of giving is in our lives

Oh, oh how much joy it brings to see the one's you love

This year's gonna be the best Christmas because

There'll be family and Christmas cheer

Peace and goodwill to all men

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home

Sneaking a kiss under the mistletoe

I want a white Christmas so let it snow

Everybody is home for Christmas

Everybody is home, it's Christmas time

Eggnog Recipe (16 Servings) 

Ingredients

8 Fresh Eggs (separated) 

1 Cup Sugar (divided into 2 equal parts) 

1 Cup White Rum 

3 Cups Milk (whole or 2%) 

3 Cups Whiskey 

2 Cups Heavy/Whipped Cream

 Ground Nutmeg (to sprinkle on servings)

  Instructions

Separate eggs into yolks and whites in separate bowls . 

Beat egg-yolks with 1/2 of sugar, set aside. 

Beat egg-whites until stiff, then mix in other 1/2 of sugar. 

Pour the yolks into the whites and mix together slowly. 

Stir in white rum slowly 

Stir in milk slowly 

Stir in whiskey slowly 

Stir in 1/2 of cream slowly 

Whip rest (1/2) of cream and fold in carefully. 

Serve at room temperature by ladling the eggnog into cups/glasses and

sprinkle nutmeg on the top. Try to get some of the foam and some of the

liquid (if not fully mixed) in each cup.

WARNING: Very Potent... Drink in Moderation...

Ask Santa... hehehe... 

 A Christmas Gift

A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas.

After hearing about this extravagant gift, a friend of his said,

"I thought she wanted one of those sporty four-wheel-drive vehicles."

"She did," he replied. "But where was I going to find a fake Jeep?"

A Sign of the Times

As a little girl climbed onto Santa's lap, Santa asked the usual,

"And what would you like for Christmas?"

The child stared at him open mouthed and horrified for a minute,

then gasped: "Didn't you get my E-mail?"

At Grandma's

Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents.

At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers

when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs.

"I pray for a new bicycle...
I pray for a new Nintendo...
I pray for a new VCR..."

His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said,

"Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf."  To which the little

brother replied, "No, but Gramma is!"

An Axe to Grind

A boy begs his father to get him a Christmas tree this year.

Each year, the boy asks and the father tells him, "I don't

want to pay for it."

But the son kept begging. Unable to bear his son's whining,

he picks up his axe one day and heads out of the house.

Thirty minutes later he returns with a great big Christmas tree.

"How did you cut it down so fast?" his son asks.

"I didn't cut it down," the father replies. 
"I got it at a tree lot."

"Then why did you bring an axe?"

"Because I didn't want to pay."

Christmas cake

Preperation time: 30 min to 1 hour

 Baking time: 2 hours

Ingredients

225g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
200g butter
200g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp black treacle
1 tbsp marmalade
1/4tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs, lightly beaten
800g mixed dried fruits
100g chopped mixed peel
150g glace cherries, halved
100g blanched almonds, chopped
brandy

To Decorate the Cake:

200g marzipan
1-2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed
Royal Icing
3 egg whites
600g icing sugar, sieved
11/2tsp liquid glycerine – optional
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas2. Grease a 20cm/8inch

 round or an 18cm/7inch square cake tin and line the bottom

and sides with baking parchment.

2. Sieve the flour, salt, mixed spice and cinnamon into a bowl.

 
3. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl and

then mix in the sugar, treacle, marmalade and vanilla essence

until light and fluffy.

4. Mix the eggs a little at a time into the mixture adding a

tablespoon of flour mixture with the last amount.

5. Fold in the remaining flour mixture until well mixed and

then mix in the dried fruit, mixed peel, glace cherries and

the almonds.

6. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and make a slight

hollow in the centre.

7. Bake in the oven for 3 hours and then test with a skewer. If

not ready bake for up to another hour testing every 20

minutes until the skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15

minutes.

9. Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.

10. Once cool, make a few holes in the cake with a skewer

and pour over 3-4 tbspof brandy. Let the brandy soak

 into the cake.

11. Store the cake wrapped in foil and in an airtight tin or

plastic container, holes side up.

12. OPTIONAL: For a rich and moist cake, spoon over a few

 tablespoons of brandy every week until you are ready to

ice and decorate your cake.

To Decorate the Cake:

1. Place the cake on a foil board or cake plate.

2. Dust your hands and the work surface with a little icing

sugar and knead the marzipan until soft.

3. Roll out half the marzipan to fit the top of the cake and

roll out the rest in strips to fit around the sides of the cake.

4. Brush the cake all over with the warmed apricot jam and

then place the marzipan on top and around the cake.

5. Cover the cake with a clean tea towel and then leave in a

cool place for at least one day.

6. To make the icing, lightly whisk the egg whites adding the

sugar at intervals. Beat well until the icing reaches soft

peaks. Add the glycerine if using and the lemon juice.

7. Spread icing all over cake either flat iced using a clean ruler

or by forming soft peaks. Decorate with Christmas ornaments.

A Visit From St. Nicholas:

The Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack,

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

Merry Christmas to all 

and to all a good.night…