With all due respect to Debs and Joe, tonight's game against Murcia (8 o'clock kick-off - nice) should be a walk over. Having said that Murcia are doing surprisingly well and are about 10th in the Liga. However, losing against them at home would submerge Barça in a deep deep depression, and Rijkaard would be on his bike.

We baked the Murcian Christmas specialty of Cordiales. These are the delicious little almond cakes, with angels’ hair filling. They are very simple to make, fun and sticky, taste scrummy and don’t hang around for long in our house. When you see these in the shops you know it’s Christmas, but I think they’re just too good to only have once a year (unlike Cadbury’s Cream Eggs – yuck!) and so I suggest you make some yourself.

We’ve spent 5 Christmases in Spain now and each year it gets better. And whilst I’m sure you’re just about getting over your over-indulgences and probably thinking about summer fun already, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the season of goodwill.

We’ve been welcomed with open arms into our Spanish village and adopted by a Spanish family, so our Christmases are as Spanish as you can imagine.

It’s that time of year again, time to make your New Year Resolutions.

So there I was, thinking about what I might do and I got out my diary and had a look at last year’s resolutions – here they are in full:

Debbie Jenkins’ 2007 New Year Resolutions

1. Don’t make New Year resolutions – bugger, well there’s that one broken straight away!

2. Become a millionaire (said in the voice of Delboy) – ermmm!

3. Learn Spanish – well I suppose it’s a bit better.

Our Goat and Sheep Farming Neighbours

The Copa del Rey finally gets serious on Wednesday night with Barça against Sevilla in Sanchez Pizjuan. Although the Copa del Rey comes a poor third to the Champions League and the Liga, a game between Barça and Sevilla is always an exciting proposition.