My daughter H is building a gingerbread house with a difference. For starters, the biscuit mixture is sans spice, much to the horror perhaps of traditionalists. It turns out, my family simply prefers gingerbread without the ginger. But that is where the simplicity ends. This is much more than a house. It is a castle! She has built it on a Lego base, with turrets, arched windows and even a drawbridge.

H baked the walls yesterday, carefully measuring them to fit the base using a template made from a cocoa pops box. One of the walls was damaged overnight. Not sure how … boys and pets plead innocence. But clearly some form of enemy was abroad, because this morning, a side wall lay in three pieces. H wasn’t fazed. “It’s an authentic ruined castle,” she said, and calmly mortared it back together with icing.

And now it’s done! A work of art, I’m sure you’ll all agree. Lego archers, swordsmen and knights on horseback, defend their castle from a fearsome fire-breathing dragon perched on a biscuit battlement. Brilliant H. Absolutely brilliant. And a merry Christmas to all!