Visitors and House-Warming Gifts

Tonight we had our first non-Medway visitors arrive for dinner.  As they can't come close to Daisy she had to hide upstairs (but made her presence VERY known), so when they left I gave her extra attention.

 They left us a house warming gift so I let Daisy help me open it up.  She is all about helping others...

  She loves getting her picture taken and Christmas is all about the kids...right?  

 

 Its behind you Daisy, turn around, the present is behind you! 

 Well, with all the excitement of opening stuff up I forgot to take a picture of the end result.  Rest assured we received some really delicious coffee as well as very pretty cushion covers.  I honestly couldn't have picked better ones myself, but our lovely friends did it without even knowing what our home looked like.

 Thank you again, you really spoilt us and there was so need at all.

 

The Magic

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

― Roald Dahl

Christmas Commandments

1. I will not buy great big presents because I feel bad for not visiting people enough.
This is something I do an awful lot of. I forgo visiting good friends and having a wonderful time with them, I undoubtedly feel bad about it and try to make up for it with expensive and elaborate presents. This is ridiculous and a punishment to yourself twice over. It is silly and not something that I’m doing this year….hopefully. I have another little post in a wee while once my project is finished that I can show off. It’s the first make this year and although it is little I’m quite excited as it is going to be made by TH and myself together.

2. I will give what I believe is appropriate and not what others expect.
Every year there is a friend of a friend of a friend who comes to a party that we receive a present from and in turn give something back. I would never dream of giving any gift that is not intentionally mean for that person. They like books and are allergic to perfume, you don’t get them perfume, you get them a book, right? Wrong! This person continually gives inappropriate gifts and in turn complains out loud at whatever you give them. I know that I should have the strength of character to deal with this and put a stop to it, however I am aiming this year to have the strength of character to not put up with this charade.

3. I will not attempt to live up to a Disney fantasy.
We all love the Christmas movies, but attempting to live our the perfect blazing pudding scene when you have had very little sleep is silly if not dangerous.

4. I will not organise ‘fun’.
This mostly leads on from commandment number three. I love Christmas for many reasons and one of those is that you get to play silly games which normally you wouldn’t entertain. This is wonderful…however, it does not make or break the day. This is a lesson I had to learn from last year where I was much too tired to go to Christmas Markets. TH got horribly ill and rushed away by the Drs and we still attempted to visit every fare in the region. Its not important. Its not one bit important at all, so I will not give it the time of day. I will give the time of day to other things which leads nicely on to..

5. I will know what it is about.
You may not be religious or have a Christian faith, but I do and I know what Christmas is to me. I know what it was to me when I was younger and that’s what I want it to be about now.
You may know that it is about family. You may know it is about friends. You may know its about charity. You may know it’s the only time you can eat until bursting point. As long as you go into it, as long as you go into anything with something good in your heart, that’s ok. That means you’ve got it. It can be any number of things or none of those at all, but as long as you go forward knowing that its not ok to be put down or stressed or in any way upset then that’s when you’ve got it.

Holidays are Coming

The other day I set out for lunch time like any other day. We’re allowed to take lunch between 12-2 and we can take the whole two hours if we want to, just as long as we make up the time. On Thursdays I normally go to the lunch time concert at the Art Gallery which is a building beautiful beyond belief and has always been my place of calm whether physically there or whilst meditating when getting a reiki. Anyway….i set out to get to my concert in time when what did I see?

The coca-cola lorry! THE holidays do start when I see that advert. Oh that and the Irn Bru one, the John Lewis one……..
This has to mean the beginning of Christmas. I can’t wait to start seeing all of the other things that mean we’re well and truly in the jolliest season.

Get the Crayons Out!

With the Boots Christmas catalogue out in plane view I know that Christmas will be upon us in no time.  Even when I was a teenager it was THE thing that made me sit up straight and get my colouring pens out.  Not so I could circle everything in it that I did want, but to circle the type of things I was really quite into-actually I still do that.  I love surprises, but I have to be honest and say that not many men would know exactly what a girl wants.  The Husband is quite grateful for the guidance, and I still get to squeeze the parcels under the tree.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I still do the occasional shift at my old job in the big black and orange DIY store. It is good for pin money, discount and I have a lot of good friends there.

Apart from it being a place for me to get good value garden things round about this time of year it becomes a good place for me to see Christmas things!

I know that it is annoying when shops do this, I completely agree that starting to doll the place up in glitter and glitz this many weeks before Christmas makes it water down the excitement that you do get.

However when it first appears and it does look sparkly and new it is quite nice, and normally made better because if you do get one small thing from the pile of decorations and fairy lights it makes you feel very organised and smug!

I have been working the last couple of days because of all of the people taking time off while their little ones are on holiday and now is the time that I am seeing all of these decorations being put on the shelves.

I'm even prematurely congratulating myself because I have been earning a little extra and have not yet blown budgets when I leave shopping until the last minute! Hmmm shall we wait and see how long this lasts!

There are still some things around..

Every where i pop my head in blogland there are some more Spring stories and pretty pastel flowers.  Up here in the North of Scotland its still a bit frosty and there is still sleet coming down on us every so often, we don't have any spring things yet or pretty pastel flowers.  We still have cold.  We still have wet, and inside of the house we've still got some decorations I've forgotten to take down....oops, bad luck.  So here they are now, not to be seen until the end of this year!

Lots of cook books, and a bit of home made decorations 

Darn flash!  I do love Paddington 

I love my cookbooks, very varied and good to read up and get lots of ideas from 

Even the cups got a little tinsel on them

This corner doesn't look too festive... 

oops, i spoke too soon! 

these lights are staying up, no matter what month it is, i love the light glow in the evening 

All the bags piled up on the sofa ready to go into the loft.  Poor rabbit, he cant see a thing! 

The tea shelf, just a wee bit of tinsel still hanging around.  I promise this week its all coming down, all the bits i thought id gotten earlier, I'll find and put up in the loft!

Last of the Christmas Presents

This is the last of the Christmas presents.  TH gave me money to buy a Barbour in the January sales.  The jacket i liked best of all wasn't in the sales, but at least i watied it out.  I'm the sort of person that will inevitably buy it the day before it gets reduced by half!

I love my new jacket so much.  I go the olive one as the liberty print is the prettiest one, i think anyway.  With the jacket i got the choice of a free gift.  There were lots of options like lovely Barbour hats and scarf sets, but then i spied the thing i really wanted...a new little coat for Daisy Dog.  I think this is a bargain, although i wouldn't actually spend the £32 for the dog coat, i certainly thought it was fine to pick it as the free gift.  I'm going to have to take pics of her in her little new wax outfit.  I love the smell of Barbour's as my Uncle had a sports shop and i grew up in amongst that lovely waxy smell.  They are really good value too as i plan to send it away every so often to get fixed and altered.  Well, by that i certainly mean that MY jacket will be sent away for....not Daisy's!

Thank you Santa

Thank you Santa.  I knew you loved me!

I'm a sucker for products and love anything by Philosophy as well.  I love sparkles and prettiness.  I'm a girly girl.  Yup, i have to walk the dog through the muddy foot-paths, but if i could I'd do it all in a long dress (six inches deep in mud!!)

Lots of little treats! 

Sparkly glosses to sweep over my lips-must moisturise first!

Ooh i can't wait to have a pamper day!

Christmas no more

Goodbye tree and presents sitting underneath

you're not there anymore, you're not sitting proudly upon presents for the whole family 

i guess it'd be easier to keep you tidy now....but still, i do wish i could see be-ribboned things everywhere 

and those paper chains, i miss you paper chains 

and those twinkly lights (and good ol' re-runs on TV)  

every little corner, decorated in sparkly things 

and cards

until next year 

oh my tummy,  too much chocolate

The decorations are slowly coming down.  Our eating habits are becoming normal again.  The last of the relatives are heading back to their own homes.  No noises of little ones.  No bickering over the remote control.  It is beginning to get quieter.

x

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the whole year.  Its even better than Christmas Day itself, but only because its the day TH and i don't have to give over to spending time with anyone else, the whole house is sparkly and shiny, clean and tidy.  The day is entirely given over to whatever we wish to do, and i plan out every spare moment and have a whole plethora of lovely things to fill our day if we want them to. 

Like every single year before it, we head off to panto in Aberdeen for the seven o'clock showing.  We have to book it the year before, but by jingo we get good seats!  This year was no different, we headed in a little earlier than normal as we had booked to have our tea in town also.

This is the leopard that sits outside of the three big old buildings Education (the City Library), Salvation (one of the Churches) and Damnation (His Majesty's Theatre) that sit in a row near at one end of town.

This is an old picture of the theatre, right up from the seats in the gods!  We booked super early and had our favourite seats in the front stalls.  I'd sit anywhere but TH needs the leg room only some seats can offer!  

Just across the road from the theatre is the art gallery and Robert Gordon's.  This is the secondary school and part of the University.  I never went to this part of it, but its still very special and so beautiful.  Its also just along from lots of shops, and so i stood in the middle of the busy last minute shoppers getting bumped and pushed and attempted to take a steady photo.  All of the good pictures that ever grace this blog are taken by TH, who kindly lets me use them.  I should have attempted to persuade him and make him trod down into town to get this one, but he was in no mood to trot this far into maddening crowds!

Our beautiful theatre. 

And the new 1906 restaurant handily built on next door-the yummiest of pre-theatre Christmas Dinners awaited us! 

Taken earlier in November when the lights was switched on, but i never did get back to get a better picture of the tree.  Alas, the snow turned into nothing. 

The Good Fairy at Panto!

Poor gentleman-must have thought i was crazy, not crazy though-just excited! 

Oh and i never did get a chance to show this pic off earlier, so here it is, thrown in haphazardly.  All the same, its hardly Christmas without it!

Couldn't help myself

Just a quick wee shot of a pile of presents waiting to go into a little wicker basket and taken out into the cold.  We're heading out visiting and need to get them to their true owners before it gets too icy to make these trips.  I thought they were just too adorable!

Peeping in

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame and one of my favourite books ever.  I don't care how old i get, i will read this book forever.  I wanted to share this little snippet with you, because i think it sums up the season perfectly.  I'm awful, i constantly look in windows.  i dont mean to, and its not that im a terrible person and utterly nosey, but i do like to peep in quickly when the curtains are slightly open and the light from inside shines out into their gardens or paths as i walk past with Daisy.  The happy little houses remind me of dolls houses.  They twinkle of an evening and they all look so inviting.  So i can only offer an apology, albeit tongue in cheek, becuase i will also offer you this knowledge....other peole also do it: 

"The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture— the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log."

Oh so very hungry

Christmas makes me hungry...very hungry.  All i can think about are little gingerbread men iced and standing in little rows, golden poultry and sugar plums.  Mr Dickens isn't helping any either....

"The Grocers'! oh the Grocers'! Nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses. It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, clashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose."

from A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens
I just had to share this, as soon as i read it i started to picture everyones makes and beautiful tables set out with the best china and most shiney silver!

One of my very favourite books ever and something that i read every year in December.  I urge you to read and re-read this book.  It is so wonderful, and so very short that you can infact treat yourself and read something lovely and have that time to yourself, even at this time of year.

x

I'll be standing in line...

The line for the Christmas panto tickets will be round the building, so I'll have to get there early.  The tickets for Christmas Eve sell out very quickly, and if you have a lot of tickets to buy its even harder.  So instead of opening up my advent calender on December first, i will shoot out of the door and head right on into town.  It also means that I'll be there early enough that it wont be horrible trodding around town collecting parcels and ribbon.

Oh to dream...

I love looking through catalogues, brochures and magazines in the run up to Christmas.  I love the over-the-top fuss of them all.  The Fortnum and Mason one (in the picture) is brilliant! Its not something i buy into once the catalogue's been put down, but its lovely to fall into all of the images.  Its the same when you look through Country Living, Good Housekeeping or Easy Living, all of which i adore-but they are made for selling, so i don't see anything wrong with pouring over the images.  Its a very good method of escapism, and something to do wihle sipping a cup of cocoa.

So far....

So far I’ve done some baking-the first this year-and its some lovely Christmas sugar biscuits. I have bought most of the presents I’ve been intending to buy and feel really quite pleased with myself. Mr Tesco has sent out club card points and we’ve doubled them up so we can spend them in the clothing section.

We’ve been (I should stop making out TH has been doing anything, or else when I get crazy as I’ve laboured away making Christmas single handed you’ll all wonder why I'm so ungrateful!) buying up Boots the Chemist presents in carefully planned batches so as to make the most of any free points and free three for twos! It’s been a bit planned out, but unless you have very time or money rich I think that’s the way it needs to be to stop you going crazy.
Well done to those of you making lots of presents, it’s something I always say I’ll do, but never have attempted yet. I really don’t craft all that much either so it wouldn’t save me any money as I don’t already have stocks and bundles of anything in particular in the store cupboard.
I printed out the Cherry Menlove gift checklist and have checked off quite a few boxes, the presents to be sent off are waiting by the door for TH to take away in the car to send away, and it’s only really the cards that are left to do and post.

I think the old adage about asking a busy person to do something is quite right, as i've never been this organised before.
Please don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty to do, and i’ve been buying things up since last Christmas. I've been saving money and saving up any points shops offer all year through-so this isn’t about ‘money’ or being ‘smug’, however I am genuinely pleased with myself for not running about like a headless chicken this year. I don’t want to panic buy and load up on a lot of overpriced rubbish I'm not happy about giving. I want to be able to buy second class stamps and not send things super-express-fast as you can Mr Postie-postal service, and to that end I'm very happy. I'm calm, able to spend time watching Christmas movies under blankets. I'm able to walk the dog on the long pretty walks we love best, I'm able to see the lights get switched on in the village, I'm able to spend what money I’ve saved going to the nice coffee shop in town, or doing any thing I want to do.

I hope everyone is feeling quite pleased with themselves and ticking off those boxes!

Cuddle up, sit back and watch

Oh Mr John Lewis, you always do make me weep with your Christmas adverts.

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa..

I should maybe just send you the CK catalogue...

as i like quite a few things....

but some presents are really for the house...

or to be taken out and used at very specific times....

OK, some things are just plain old pretty...

or quite a treat...

or indeed, a place to place a treat....

can you fill some presents too?

and socks this cute are certainly allowed to go under the tree...

as its always good to get cosy warm presents!