Today I'm giving thanks… for Christmas :o)

I went along to the Britmums Xmas do on Monday which I was very excited about as I don't have a work do any more what with not having a job right now. It was a great chance to catch up with some bloggers I know and to meet a lot of others who I don't know. The room was absolutely crammed with goodies and I have to admit that I did wonder how I'd find any room for fruit cake and mince pies so early on a Monday, but I did manage a mini mince pie and a chilled glass of very nice white wine too.

Morrisons provided the food and drinks and Neil Nugent who is one of the chefs there talked us through some of the most common errors that people make when preparing Christmas food. I took away these top tips:

• Never use foil on the turkey - it steams it and causes overcooking and dryness.
• Pick up the turkey by it's legs and shake them to relax it. I say this as a vegetarian - honestly, I'm not making it up - it means the heat will distribute more evenly round the bird.
• When making roast potatoes use Maris Pipers and don't boil the spuds, just simmer them so that you don't have mushy roasties.
• You can prepare all the veg before the big day and keep it in the fridge or freezer (according to Neil the freezer is a chef's best friend !)

The festive feel of the morning was helped by some little ones who were running around entertaining us. My favourite was a toddler wearing a santa hat who kept stealing the limelight from Jen and Neil when they were speaking. I hadn't been feeling too Christmassy before this event, but I've since booked my boy in to have breakfast with Father Christmas, he's going to a meet Santa event and we're going to see Reindeer and hopefully go on a husky sled ride too. The tree will be going up on Sunday and I've got far too many advent calendars !

I came away from the do with a stash of goodies including a chocolate Rudolph cake complete with chocolate antlers. My son loved the decorate your own gingerbread trees and the mini sponge cakes in Santa, reindeer and snowman shapes are a lovely alternative to fruit cake.

I was really surprised and inspired by the range on offer and will definitely be checking out the Christmas goodies in our local Morrisons.

Thanks Britmums for such a fab event :o)