Burnt mince pies! plus another picture of Christmas

While I was doing a couple of loaves of bread this morning I thought I would make a few mince pies to check that my homemade mincemeat was keeping OK. I was also making some lemon drizzle cakes in case we get visitors for our smallholders coffee morning tomorrow ( last month no one came!). I had the timer set to start with, then I was wiping up, and realised the dish drainer was looking a bit yucky so took it through to the utility room to soak it in my deep sink. Timer goes off, check mince pies- they need a few more minutes, back to utility room, scrubbing dish drainer, cleaning sink, back in the kitchen suddenly remember mince pies- TOO LATE! a dozen very overdone mince pies. Grrrrr what an idiot I am!

Though all is not lost-  the sweet rich pastry I use for mince pies was very short and crumbly so although overdone they are not rock hard, Him Outside will eat almost anything! the mincemeat is delicious and I still have a large jar of it left.

Yesterday evening I made a start on writing Christmas cards. I did 2!
 Really must get on with this job.
 The Christmas cards I'm using are all ones I've bought in the January Sales at Charity shops or from car boot sales or homemade. My aim every year is to make all my cards but in reality I know I'll never get round to it so I always look out for them going cheap.I'm a traditionalist, I like cards with old fashioned pictures- snow scenes and robins!
Here's what I sending this year.

That's two days with Christmassy pictures - can I find a picture to take every day?  I might give it a go! and No I'm not taking a photo of the burnt mince pies.

Whoops, nearly forgot to thank everyone for comments yesterday.  Thank you for the info that there is a choice of stamps at the post office and everyone loves the advent calender as much as I do.
I like the sound of the one that was made for Pam in Norway by her son - very sweet.