Ah November... shit weather, insane workloads, and the annoying early arrival of cheesy Christmas carols in shopping centres, reminding you that in one short month you will be frantically dashing around to those same carols blowing your hard-earned Christmas bonus.
Our Christmas gatherings have been shrinking as the years go by, and poor dad's designated braai-er and driver duties have been rewarded with less and less of his usual favourites. From great big Christmas lunches with all the fat, sugar and alcohol possible, to diabetic and cholesterol friendly meals paired with a Windhoek Light. One of his old favourites was always trifle, and probably for the exact same reasons, it was always my least favourite. My gran would soak the trifle in gallons of sherry, and my innocent youth taste buds would recoil in terror, and the best part of Christmas lunch would end in a minesweeper-esque game of find the sherry-free jelly.
So to surprise my trifle-loving dad and my Christmas-loving sister, we has little festive season warm-ups. Nothing store-bought and no short cuts (okay except the jelly), these little trifles are labours of love!
