Sid the Skier

I know Christmas 2016 is done and dusted, but I just came across this picture of the decoration on our Christmas cake. Unorthodox to say the least. Sid the Skier out of control on a wintry landscape.

None of the usual Santa Clauses, snowmen, or stars of Bethlehem. 

And that’s just what you can see. What you can’t tell from the picture, is that Mhairi fashioned Sid from the cling-film-wrapped stuff she found in the fridge, which I had agreed was marzipan left over from the icing of the cake. It was only when I came to roll out the pastry for the pecan pie that I realised she’d grabbed the wrong cling-film-wrapped dough ball, and used some of the short crust pastry intended for the pie, to create Sid! Once I confirmed I had enough remaining pastry for the pie, a roar of hilarious laughter went up from the kitchen at the ‘hillock.

The other thing you can’t see from the picture is that the pink food colouring was about a decade or more out of date. Bequeathed to me when Jamie gave up his catering business, I have dripped out food colouring occasionally for cakes and cookies, never realising that even food colouring has a best before date. So far nobody has been poisoned (to my knowledge anyway...)

There is always a back story to every picture. Some tell sad tales; some reveal secrets and others are just plain funny. 

Jesus says not to judge each other. Cut each other some slack. Give others a break, the benefit of the doubt. Even the most unlikeable character has a reason for his/her behaviour. Not everyone behaves in orthodox ways. Not everyone – maybe not anyone – is exactly as she appears: we never know the recipe that makes a person how they are. Not everything past their sell-by date should be discarded...

This year I intend to lighten up. To look for the joy in every situation. To recognise that nothing is really just what we see; no-one is completely what we think we know.