Now both December and Advent are here I feel justified in putting up the Christmas decorations at home. I don't vary them much from year to year, and nephew Joe is a great help here especially as he is a foot taller than I am and doesn't need a stool to put up the paper chains. Some of these are getting a bit tatty, but we chose them twenty years ago when we moved to this house - these are the newer decorations; some of the baubles go back to my childhood, a few back to my parents' and one is reputed to have reached its century.
I have posted my first Christmas present (to Fiji), have written (but not yet printed/e-mailed) the Christmas letter, and ALL my best friends are going to be visiting over Christmas.
I haven't finished my Christmas shopping or booked my slot for Tesco online (Asda still not sorted for our postcode, although they seem to cover postcodes half a mile away in all directions).
Tomorrow I shall do my annual musical extravaganza and 'play' all the carols in the Easiest Tune Books of Christmas Carols. I'm hopelessly bad even with these mashed versions in easy keys with very few notes for the left hand, but it is fun. Years ago, during a power cut, my mother and I discovered we knew all the verses of over 70 carols (mainly in English), and could make vague shots at the first and last verses of several dozen more. Shame about the singing.
Does anyone get the impression that I love Christmas?
You bet I do!
Tuesday
I haven't got round to my music making yet, nor have I hoovered upstairs. On the other hand I have just done a massive order to Amazon which more-or-less completes my Christmas shopping (including a present to me).
lizdavies
We bought our cards on Sunday. Ed was pestering me about getting them, so I said OK lets go and get some then. Last year we ended up having an argument because he did much the same thing and ended up standing outside the shop looking bored while I actually bought the cards, including those for his nearest and dearest. So I reminded him of this and sent him off to choose cards for Marion, Jenny and Gareth himself, whilst I chose the other family ones. He came back with extremely ordinary, non personal cards - so I said "OK, I'll do all the close family ones, you get the boxes for everyone else." He came back with the ugliest cards I've seen in years, but they are his choice, so those are what we're sending. To cap it all, he'd chosen 2 boxes from the 3 for the price of 2 shelf. So I picked up a third box on my way to the till....