Get stuffed!

Please tell me you've bought your chestnuts. You'll need them to make your stuffing which you are going to make this week and then freeze. You'll also need to keep some back to go with your sprouts on the big day.
First and foremost, a quick word about stuffing a bird to roast and the word is "DON'T." When you roast your festive bird just pop a half lemon, a half orange and an onion in the cavity with a handful of sage and roast the stuffing separately. So here's how to make your stuffing.
I am not going to give you my usual list of ingredients and method, it is far to personal a thing to be put down in exact details.
Take some sausage meat (I tend to dismantle my favourite sausage, discarding the skin), the meat should make up about half of the stuffing. mix in some breadcrumbs (about half as much by volume as the meat), an egg, the chestnuts (all blitzed up onto crumbs), the grated zest of an orange, lemon or lime, herbs - finely chopped (sage is a favourite, but anything with some punch), salt and pepper. Mix all this up with your hands (yes I mean it). Now, take a tiny piece, about the size of a £2 coin and fry it off in a pan. Taste this and adjust the seasoning as you like. Pop it into a shallow, oven proof dish, ridge the top with a fork and pop it in the freezer. Bring this out on the eve of the big day and allow to defrost in the fridge overnight. This will need cooking for 45-60 minutes in the oven. Serve slices with the meat.
Part of the joy of Christmas is the Boxing Day feast of cold cuts (I may actually enjoy this more than the meal itself), cold stuffing, if made well, is a thing of great beauty so making too much is no sin.
The beautiful wife and I have just got back from visiting my mother. She had purchased a superb piece of topside of beef which I roasted on Saturday night and served with Yorkshire puddings and veg. However, my mother, whose vocabulary is a little bit old fashioned burst into the kitchen and announced that she hadn't had a joint for ages! Having calmed ourselves after laughing ourselves silly, the Beautiful Wife and I explained that in today's world she needed to clarify that she meant a joint of meat.