I washed all the dog blankets and bedding this morning, to take advantage of that rare yellow thing in the sky.....which had disappeared by lunchtime, although it's not raining, but is quite cold. Hopefully they'll all dry on the line, they're all fleece, but I expect I'll fold and put them in the airing cupboard when I get them in, to finish off.
I've made 2 Christmas cakes, the second is a small one in a loaf tin, just because there was too much mixture for my deep round cake tin. The small one we'll eat over the next week, I won't bother with feeding it with alcohol, unlike the big one. So the house smells all Christmassy now.....although husband said it smelt like the new Winter Spice air freshener in the bathroom 😒. He has such a way with words!
Having seen them advertised constantly on FB, I gave in and ordered a boxful of Cornish Pasties from a Cornish bakery....I ordered them yesterday lunchtime (must have been hungry 😂) just before 1.00 pm and they arrived this morning around 10 am. They're despatched frozen, packed in a polystyrene lidded box inside a sturdy cardboard box, and the pasties inside the polystyrene box are surrounded with disposable freezer packs. Everything was still frozen solid, impressively. 8 pasties and they come with 4 free jumbo sausage rolls. They're now all portioned up and in the freezer, so that's 6 meals for the 2 of us over the next few weeks. Actually, husband can have one of the pasties for his dinner whilst I'm away, they're cooked from frozen so he can easily do that, along with some chips or beans (most likely both). Even though I hardly ever eat meat nowadays, I do like a proper Cornish pasty occasionally.
Husband's off to the gym again tomorrow morning (he is doing well!), so I'll get him to drop me off in town.....I want to start looking for decorations for the Christmas tree. Last year I had all different decorations on the tree, a mixture of various coloured baubles and other things - glittery stars, glass ornaments, little stuffed toys. I'm quite new to Christmas decs and trees, we never used to bother with them whilst my Mum was alive....the reason being, she was a Jehovah's Witness and they don't celebrate Christmas, so we'd been brought up since childhood not having any decorations up. It didn't really bother me, I didn't know any different really. By a huge coincidence, husband's family were also JWs - our two families didn't know each other at the time, they were in different congregations. So he's never been bothered about Christmas either, in fact he's a total Grinch. Neither of us is a JW, we never got into it. I wouldn't have dreamt of putting up decorations whilst my Mum was alive - she didn't live with us but often visited, and although she wouldn't have complained, it would have seemed disrespectful to her if I had. After she died, though, I decided I would. I think this year is only the 4th one of having a tree. This year, instead of the variety of different tree decs, I fancy going with a simple scheme - just baubles I think, different sizes and in shades of red and gold. Or maybe red and green.....I'll see what I fancy when I see some in the shops. I won't be putting up any other decorations - the Grinch does live here too so I have to take account of his wishes! 😉😁 I've got quite a few Christmas ornaments and animals, and some Xmas gnomes, which I love......I might put some of them out, although they'll have to be high up on top of sideboards etc, as Betty kept thinking they were toys for her last year, she kept grabbing them and running off with them. I did buy a couple of lovely red Poinsettia plants for last Christmas, but they very quickly died....I'm not good with houseplants! So I don't think I'll bother with them this year.
Some of the Spring bulbs I planted up in pots outside are already starting to show through the compost - the early narcissi I think. Can't wait for Spring! It's my favourite season.
I do love a tree at Christmas, mine is 6foot and huge, but I do have the space by patio doors which we never use in winter. As for Poinsettias they hate this house, I have a silk one I bring out each year.
ReplyDeleteWe've had the Cornish pasties delivered before- they're gorgeous!! They come all the way up to the Midlands & are well packaged.
ReplyDeleteI used to love Christmas and Christmas decorations but Steve's continual moaning put me off it. This year I have decided to put up a small tree and decorate it.
ReplyDeleteI gave up buying a real tree years ago, and bought a fake one. I do prefer the real thing, but they do seem expensive. I thought I was creating lovely memories of choosing our tree with our children, but a few years ago, my daughter said she hated it because the pine needles prickled. Bubble burst! My tree is so covered with baubles, lights and tinsel, that you can hardly see it anyway! Oh, and I always yarn-bomb my gate posts. Nativity set on one (with 3 kings and camels walking along the wall) and this year the other gate post will have the Snowman, Snowdog and Billy. Just making some snowflakes to add to that one. I love seeing parents and children looking at them. xx
ReplyDeleteK, I'd love to see pics of your yarnbombing! xx
DeleteI'll see if I can email them. Not very good with tech, though, so don't expect miracles!🤣 xx
DeleteI'm not such a technophobe as I thought, Sooze. E-mail and photos should be with you soon! xx
DeleteA couple of fake trees here, one is only about 3 feet and I use it upstairs now that Kris brings our grandcat home each Christmas. I just don't know what she would do with a tree. The large one goes downstairs and I decorate it in silver and read balls, as well as all the angels I been given as gifts over the years. The one upstairs has lots of homemade ornaments.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Haha, men eh ... all that lovely baking and he says it smells like an artificial air freshener!! A lot of my ex-husbands family were Jehovah's Witnesses too, so we always kept our Christmas low key as we were always invited to the Christmas week get togethers that the congregation put on for the youngsters. Football, rounders and cricket along with barbeques in the Lake District parks. But we did celebrate with my Mum and Dad so I guess we had the best of both worlds.
ReplyDeleteI use the same decorations every year, occasionally adding a new one into the mix. But over the years I have downsized considerably, donating anything that doesn't go onto the tree straight to the charity shop.