Last Thursday I had a Christmas Lunch at my house for some author friends. I put some floating candles and greenery in my fishbowl:

and heated some mulled wine alongside some non-alcoholic punch (Jamie Oliver’s cranberry and ginger beer fizz, which was a Sainsbury’s recipe about three years ago and is DELICIOUS – sadly I can’t find the recipe online!)

And then my friends arrived! Everyone brought a dish to share, so we had a fantastic range of yummy food, from vegetable pie to pizza to gluten-free chocolate cake – and all handmade too! We got stuck in (next year I must remember to provide crackers)

Left to right, you can see Amy Butler Greenfield, Cecilia Busby, Jackie Marchant, Charlotte Guillain, Julia Golding, Sally Nicholls, Mary Hooper, Susie Day and Caroline Juskus. What a beautiful bunch they are!

And after the food, too stuffed to move, we had a Secret Santa too:

Spending time with other authors is so important to me. We work in isolation so much of the time, it’s lovely to be with people who do the same thing and understand my bizarre world!

By the time everyone left, I was feeling VERY festive 🙂