Preserving the Spirit of Christmas on December 10

For tonight we're going to look to the word "spirit" so I can use some recently inherited bottles gifted by a friend who was moving and couldn't include them in the shipment.

 Last week, the son who loves to bake and has done a lot of baking for others lately, wondered aloud if I would make him a cake. Hoping to find a recipe to use some of the hooch, in particular the Grand Marnier because there was more than one bottle, I decided to make an orange cake. As it turned out I didn't use the recipe with the GM glaze because I did not have the correct pan to make it in. Instead I improvised somewhat with the recipe I settled on replacing the raisins (it was a New Zealand recipe) with some of the remaining cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.

 The orange theme must have settled in to my mind because I wondered about making a pomander or two. It has been a few years since I made one but I gathered the necessary ingredients - and then got distracted photographing them. Watch this space to see if I follow through with the plan!

 A random shot tossed in for interest. The trimmings from the re-cutting of the bases of the Christmas trees are good to use as props in the December photographs.

 Have you been good this year? Will Santa swallow the drink you leave out for him and drop an orange in the toe of your Christmas stocking? You surely won't be getting a lump of coal will you?

 Many different versions of my setups are taken and I can't always decide which one to use. So here is shot two of the orange cake...

And shot two of the orange for the Christmas stocking. We will be well preserved by the time it gets to December 25th at this rate!