Sunday, 26-11-23: longish post alert

Morning, everyone.  There's quite a hard frost out there this morning.  If my garden wasn't such a building site, it would look absolutely lovely, I think.  I hope it warms up later because I want to do a bit of garden sorting this afternoon.

Yesterday - Christmas Tree Day - was great. I had spent the morning getting my exercise by lugging the tree and the various decoration boxes from the garate into the house (great exercise) before putting the tree together and fluffing out the branches/twigs so it was ready for the lights. 

Then I started the buffet prep, got out the festive china (Spode's Christmas Tree) and git out some other decorations.

The Guardians of the Christmas Tree are my old teddy (left), my brother Dave's old teddy (right) and Beth's first teddy.

. . . together with their attendants (plenty of knitting there!).

(does anyone else have these quirky little naming traditions dating back to when children or grandchildren were little?)

Santa was Mum's and I knitted Mrs Christmas.  Obviously not originally a set but they are now!

I now have two Nativities.

I got this wooden set when Beth and Dave were little so it is around forty years old, bought from a West Country craftsman after I saw it in a brochure round a friend's house.  Well before the internet, of course.  The angel on the right is not part of that set, neither are the wooden trees.

And here's the Jean Greenhowe set I made for Mum a couple of years before she died.

I was making a set for someone else and Dad mentioned that Mum would love that so, once I had finished the other set, I knitted like crazy and managed to finish it just in time for Christmas.

I found the stable in John Lewis!

 Beth and Alex turned up at around two, we started in on the first drinks and then attacked the tree.  It's taken us twenty years but at last we have learned how close together each circle of lights has to go to the one before to finish them at the top of the tree.  This year, for the first time, I won't have to play 'Find the end of the lights' on Twelfth Night.

We have our method, honed after years of experience.  😁

Lights on first, of course.

Then we sort out all the 'specials' - decorations that, for one reason or other, have a special meaning.  There are several that came from Mum and Dad's collection, there are baubles that children in my class gave me, a selection from a local glass artist, there are ones I saw and really loved . . .

For ages, I bought one new decoration each year but it had to be special, one I just couldn't leave behind.  I would have done the same this year but I haven't seen one - yet.

Then we fill in the gaps with the ordinary ones.  For days to come I will see gaps and pop another one on.  By Friday, it will be done and I will put the rest in the new (and, hopefully, finished) shed.

That, done, we started on out second drink and watched films/DVDs.

I chose The Snowman and Father Christmas (on the same DVD)

Alex chose Paddington 2

And Beth chose The Muppets' Christmas Carol.

We pigged out on Festive Food - and that freezer should be back in the shed by Friday, I sincerely hope.  It is nice not to have to go out to get frozen stuff in but not nice enough for me to want it to stay there, spoiling the view.

Beth took this photo to post on Facebook with the caption "Christmas Tree Day at muvvers. Sparkly lights, mini stollen and Father Chrismas (sic) dvd on. Blooming marvellous."

It makes everywhere look so neat and tidy.

So I took this one this morning.  Other end of the room, other end of the spectrum!

It's all stuff for the garden room/shed.

The big boxes will end up in the garage again in the New Year but, for December, they just stay in the shed.

While sorting out decorations, candles, etc, yesterday, I picked out any silver/white stuff for the garden room, I found a little tree that I used to put up in my classroom so that can go out there for Christmas and there's that corner unit which was where the Christmas Tree is so had to be moved.

I am really hoping that this mess will all have been sorted by Friday - it gets me down a bit but I can put up with it for a few days.  It gives me the chance to sort through those boxes again and, perhaps, get rid of stuff I'm not using any more.

Beth and Alex left just in time for me to catch Strictly (by accident, not by design) so I watched that, then caught up on the new Doctor Who special on iPlayer (so enjoyable) before wending my way rather erratically up the stairs and into bed.
I really deserve to have a hangover this morning but have managed to escape and I'm straight back on Slimming World guidelines again now.

I am feeling rather weary though, so I'm planning an easy morning before heading out into the garden after dinner (if the weather holds) to deal with some of my own garden rubble.  I know Jeff is coming on Wednesday but there's no guarantee he will be able to do much in the back garden.
Note to self:  must get his Christmas Card ready.

So Christmas Tree Day is done and dusted and it was an absolute joy coming down this morning and turning on the lights.  I love the run up to Christmas.

Have a really good Sunday, everyone, be safe and stay warm.  xx