….one of these friend’s was my running shoes.  Yep, I actually made it to the gym twice this week.  Alfie was working twilight shifts, which meant that he was home in the day, so I took advantage and headed to the gym to burn up a sweat.  I was absolutely knackered about 15 minutes in, but it felt good to be back.  I’m under no illusions, I know that it’s going to take a long time to regain my fitness levels and it’s something that I’m happy to take slowly.

With only 4 sleeps until Santa makes his way down the chimney, we’ve really been getting into the Christmas spirit.  There was a Christmas market in town this week and we were lucky that one of our oldest and closest friends was working on the Neal Yard’s cheese stall.  We met up for a catch up and headed to Jamie’s Italian for lunch, which got a bit tricky when AJ started to get fussy; thankfully the Christmas tree lights in the restaurant kept him entertained.  I had the mixed superfood salad with chicken for lunch and it was delicious!

Afterwards we headed to another little café for coffee and hot chocolate.  I had the most amazing gingerbread hot chocolate and shared a slice of apple and parsley cake and as weird as it sounds it was actually very lovely.  We then went to try some of the delicious artisan cheeses on our friends stall and picked some out to take home for our Christmas cheese board. 

Earlier in the week when we visited our friend at the market Alfie and I couldn’t resist some vegan churros and dark chocolate sauce.  I’d had some the year before and loved them and they tasted just as good this time round too.

I’ve loved clementines this week, they’re just perfect at this time of year.  I had some for breakfast with organic natural yoghurt and a new granola recipe that I have been testing out for the blog.  

This is both great for lunch and breakfast in my opinion: scrambled eggs, tomatoes, avocado and ketchup.  I love this meal so much that I never seem to get bored with it.

Pears are another favourite fruit of mine at this time of year.  These were super sweet and went well with some full fat Greek yoghurt, sweet mince-pie filling and pecans, yum!

I’m so excited that Christmas is so close now. My little man is all set and I’ve bought him some super cute Christmas outfits and pajamas.  Christmas means so much more to me know that he’s here, so I’m trying to make it extra special for him even though he won’t remember any of it.  He’s actually going to wear that cardigan today as we are delivering presents to his great-grandma and visiting his Nana and great aunts…Christmas is going to be fantastic this year!

Have you visited any local Christmas Markets this year?  What are your favourite fruits at this time of year?