(Christmas Time! I displayed my newly purchased Christmas wreath from Sally Bourne Interiors (I like it because it makes me think of Dragon scales). I also had twigs of Mistletoe on my table, given to me by a neighbouring stall holder.)

(This week’s star product was definitely the chocolate assortment box! All the boxes sold out by 12:40pm!!! - - The truffle flavours were raspberry, hazelnut crunch, classic & caramel.)

(My stall & my bump.)
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Saturday 22nd at the market was Madness.

The chocolates were flying off the stall with mesmerizing speed. It was very stressful to keep up with the demand. - Despite pre-filling some of the boxes late Friday night, those filled ones got sold so quick, I was having to fill more boxes while customers waited. Some waited for 20 minutes, while I had to pack the back-orders that kept piling up, & I felt terrible. - And so it was around 12:40pm when I sold-out on them that I finally relaxed, & ripped myself away from the stall table to buy a pain-au-chocolat (from the De Gustibus artisanal bread stall) for breakfast, & pour myself some Rooibos Tea from the thermal flask.
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The second best-seller of the week was the ‘Flour-less Chocolate Cake’. They also quickly disappeared off - & was sold out by 1:30pm. I wish I had made more of these cakes & the chocolate truffles… I could have sold a lot lot more - possibly double as much - the opportunity was there - but as D puts it, I’d be crazy to increase work-load as I was at my limits already (more like ‘past’ my limits actually!).

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Many customers asked questions on how long these cakes last, as they wanted to serve them on the 25th. Three days is a bit of a big gap for leaving cakes around, especially the ones with fresh fruit like raspberries.

- I know this is gonna sound like I’m a dim-wit, but I didn’t know until I started doing a market stall that every year the week-day goes one forward:

ie: If this year’s Saturday is on the 22nd, next year’s will be on the 21st - although there’s the exceptional years when a February has 29 days (leap year), then it jumps two days forward.

Next Christmas (2008) is such a year & will lie on the 20th. FIVE DAYS away from Christmas Day is a huge gap - I do wonder if it’ll dent the sales… We’ll see I guess…
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What are you doing this Christmas? (Or, if you’re reading this post-Xmas, what did you do?) Tell me! I can bet it’ll be better than mine, as…:
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The new UK government guideline suggests pregnant women abstain from consuming alcohol completely - so, for me, this Christmas would be spent sober - while everyone around me would be merrily drinking themselves silly…

When I was pregnant first time round (back in 2003), the guidelines were that women can drink one or two units of alcohol (the equivalent of a single glass of wine) once or twice weekly. But this year’s Christmas, I’ll be pulling the crackers & putting a stupid paper hat on rather straight-headed. Oh Joy…
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Christmas Recipe:

- Combine loads of good wishes,

- whisk together heart full of love & armful of hugs.

- Sprinkle with laughter & garnish with mistletoe.

- Top off with presents.

- Serves everyone!