AN EPIPHANY

Can't help that feel sad that today was the last day of Christmas holidays. Still have that back to school feeling even though I shall be working from home.
To mark the end of the holidays I roasted a leg of lamb and prepared the roast potatoes, parmesan parsnip, cauliflower and cumin, broccoli and yorkshire puds. T had his friend round to revise for GCSE's. Yep I did have to pinch myself when I realised that they were actually doing that, not watching You Tube videos and R was happily painting, finishing her art homework. Michael and I had taken Bobdylan (he's a cockerpoo, not  the harmonica playing protest singer) for a long walk  before I started cooking so had had some fresh air. As I was stripping leaves from the Thyme, I was listening to Jarvis Cocker on Radio 6 and I had an epiphany of my own.  That these quiet Sundays, when it's us just doing our thing quietly around the home, all together, are the most cherished moments.  Of course, I love it when we are out and about, visiting friends, doing stuff we love, individually enjoying our interests but I do so appreciate all being snug at home on a grey January Sunday.
After the meal we ate the Galette des Rois. A French family friend gave us a little porcelain figure, from  The Golden Compass and told us about the French Tradition on January 6th,  Three Kings Day. You make the cake by putting a sweet almond concoction in a puff pastry case (I use Nigella Lawson's recipe in How To Eat but swap orange flower water for rum). Then pop the ceramic figure or a broad bean if you're out of little figurines, into the paste. When the cake is cooked, you bring to the table with gold paper crown. Actually we didn't have a gold paper crown this year but had to use a paper green one from a cracker. Whatever you have or can make. Or bribe the kids to make. Anyway. The youngest person in the household then sits under the table and directs the cake cutter as to who  they should give each portion of cake to. The person who finds the little figure in their cake is then king or queen for the day, wears the crown and gets out of household duties. I'm not sure if the getting out of household duties is a universal tradition or just what we've made up at our house. R did a fab job from under the table and managed to direct the little figure onto her plate. I think this has happened every year but can't work out how she does it.
Now that we've enjoyed that ceremony and the decorations are all gone it does now feel like a new year.  Which probably means I should start working on my resolutions. One of which is to clear up the kitchen before I go to bed. Ugh. Did I say I am the world's most untidy cook?  Better go and start to tackle it now because one of my other resolutions was to be in bed before 12pm. Hmm. That gives me one hour and 5 minutes. I so wish I had won that crown!