December 2018

When you work in retail, December is particularly brutal. No matter how hard you work, how many hours you do, how nice you are to people, it is just never enough. I was working 50 hours a week, and it was just a drop in the ocean. When it's that busy at work, time away from work becomes even more precious than normal. But you're so exhausted, you just don't want to do anything, you just want to sleep and recover. I did try to make sure work didn't take over my life through the whole of December, but it was a challenge.

But I did take some time to do some baking and trying out some new recipe's. Otherwise I would have lived off pot noodles and rustlers burgers all month, which to be honest, I would have been quite happy with! Here's my raspberry cheesecake (ignore the spring onions, they were for something else, not a garnish for the cheesecake!)

This was one of the best roast dinners ever. I had boiled the gammon in apple cider with lashings of maple syrup, before baking in the oven. It was glorious, with a massive helping of stuffing and broccoli. Just how a roast should be!

And this was my first ever attempt at a key lime pie. It took forever to make, it tasted awful, and I vowed to never make it again. It also took forever to clean up afterwards as well!

And we had a real Christmas tree this year, which was beautiful, until the tree started to dry out and the needles went everywhere, we were still finding them months later!

And with that, 2018 was almost over. It had been a fantastic year, having spent months abroad travelling and exploring. I'd also been more settled at home living with James, we were getting on better than ever, and I was looking forwards to what 2019 was going to bring me.

Happy new year & goodbye 2018!