We are almost in the month of November, a few more weeks and Christmas will be here.  It is a time of year that most people look forward to.  It is usually a period of much eating, drinking and celebrating.  One of the things Jamaicans look forward to at Christmas is a big nice slice of Christmas cake.  Today I am going to share the recipe with you and you can try it for your self.

Christmas Cake  Recipe

1/2 lb. butter

1/2 lb. granulated sugar

6 ozs. flour

6 ozs. bread crumbs

1 tsp. baking powder

4 cups mixed fruits (raisins, currants, cherries, prunes)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. mixed spice

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup white rum

1 pt. port wine

2 tsp. lime juice

6 eggs

1 tsp. almond flavouring

1 tbsp browning

Method

`         1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

1.  Mix in browning, almond flavouring, vanilla and lime juice

2.  Add eggs one at a time and beat in well.  Add fruits to the mixture

3.  Mix flour, breadcrumbs, baking powder, salt and mixed spices

4.  Add alternately with rum and port wine

5.  Pour mixture into cake tin which has already been greased and lined

6.  Bake at   350F  for one and a half hours

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Life is not always a bed of roses.  There is always going to be good times and bad times.  There are going to be days when you are up and days when you feel down.  There will be days when everything goes well and days when things seem to fall apart.  All of these things are a part of life.  We grow from life experiences and some of the things we go through helps to make us stronger.  We can learn from our mistakes and try to turn our failures into success.  One valuable lesson we can learn from life is that no matter how tough the going gets we should never quit.  It could be that last step that propels you to success, but then you would never know if you quit before taking that step.  Always remember that after the storm there will come the calm.  Hang in there and whatever happens do not quit!

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It is amazing how people can be insensitive to others not realizing that anything can happen to anyone.  I recall an incident with a brother and a sister.  The brother was mentally challenged. One day the sister came in a furniture store where I was working at the time; the brother happened to be passing by saw her and came in, walked up to her and greeted her with a hug. She shrugged him off and started cursing him, telling him not to hug her.  Somewhat surprised at her behavior, I reminded her that he was her brother.  She replied “Yes, but a don’t want him hugging me in public”.  About a year later she suffered some kind of mental breakdown and she was in the street acting all crazy and I said to myself,  just look at that!  We need to be careful how we treat each other for we know not what tomorrow will bring.

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“One of the greatest challenges that we often  face in life is that of taking steps to implement our ideas and dreams from just mere thoughts into reality. We must therefore surround ourselves with a team of people who will offer positive advice, constructive criticism and words of encouragement if we are ever going to be able to make such transition in pursuit of what we desire.”    ( Michael W Williams)