Advent Calendar 25

It's Christmas!

Stay safe everyone.

xx

Advent Calendar 24

'Tis the night before Christmas,

Now what have we here?

Christmas tree lit

To give Christmas cheer.

Presents are wrapped,

Decorations are hung,

Food is all ready

And carols been sung.

But all are not happy,

Sad, lonely, depressed.

Their Christmas is spoiled,

Their joy is suppressed.

From the story of Christmas

May love and peace

Flood though the world

Causing worries to cease.

Stay safe everyone.

xx 

Advent Calendar 23

What things do you HAVE to have at Christmas?

For me it's ...

a real Christmas tree

a Christmas arch

lights

a poinsettia

greenery

In this year's pared down Christmas I had to decide which I wanted. I could have chosen ...

garlands

Christmas ornaments

streamers

Christmas pictures

Your Christmas must haves are?

xx 

Advent Calendar 22

I exercised to music today - Christmas music on the juke box.

Christmas songs and carols herald the nearness of the big day.

 

I have to have 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' first. (Not that I am!)

xx

 

Advent Calendar 21

Ok, I didn't have the self raising flour so I used plain with baking powder. And I didn't have icing sugar so I blitzed some ordinary sugar. I didn't photograph it before I decorated it as it looked as though it should be in the bathroom - if you get my drift. It doesn't look much better decorated as it has a shiny, lumpy quality that didn't get any better with knife smoothing. Putting it on a wooden platter may have helped the composition of the shot but I'm not convinced. Under the suspect icing is a homemade Swiss roll. (I didn't have greaseproof paper which didn't help the rolling up after it had baked!)

Anyhow - Happy Yule Log Day to all.

PS DH thought it was delicious. Phew, saved.

Stay safe.

xx

PPS Look here for the first one I made. It didn't look any better then!

 

Advent Calendar 20

Which room do I spend most time in? I think it must be the kitchen so it's got most of the decoration this Christmas - in the form of lights. 

Can you see the new set of lights in the corner?

Just a glass bowl with a candle in and a few bits of plastic greenery, baubles and orangey pieces plus 

the set of battery lights. The bowl I took from the fake wreath table decoration in the back room.

It now has the poinsettia as its centre - plus some lights.

These lights will stay up for all  of January to light the gloom in the new year.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 19

Our holly tree, which is really 3 trees together, grew nearly as high as the house so we chopped it down as it was too big. Our holly tree decided it didn't want to be chopped down so it grew again - 3 main shoots. Our holly tree is now as high as halfway up the house. 

I use some of its branches every year to decorate in the house.

Our holly tree got covered in snow one winter.

Looks very Christmassy with a coating of white.

No snow this year ...

... yet.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 18

I chose one of the recipes from my Christmas Planner. Scones don't have many ingredients and are quite simple to make - I still manage to make a mess in the kitchen as well.

Look good and taste good. The festivities have begun.

xx

Advent Calendar 17

I use my Christmas Planner in the run-up to Christmas. Let me give you a quick tour. The planner is a Filofax Classic Cross which won't mean much to most people but will to Filofax devotees! It's very battered and is the first one I purchased a long time ago. I have a few more now which seem to have formed a 'collection'.

It opens up to a welcoming card that says it will soon be Christmas. Soon will, won't it!

A couple of dividers set the festive scene.

Ok, a couple more than a couple. The first section is a Christmas Checklist which notes things to do for Christmas from October onwards - check cards, buy presents, stock up with food and so on. There is also a post Christmas Checklist which tells me to write notes for next year, start a gift list, sort decorations before putting away and write Thank Yous.

The next section is all about cards and gifts. Here I have the list of addresses for the Christmas cards.

Each person has their own page with their address, names of all the family and any notes about them that they have written in their cards, eg life events since their last card. I also note when I receive their card and when I send the card.

Information about gifts received and given are noted in this section plus a list of presents I have and suggested presents for the next year.

The food section houses a Christmas Shopping List ...

and ingredient lists for Christmas baking and cooking. 

I put some Christmas recipes in there too.

ere

The final section houses notes about the present year - what went well or what didn't and notes for the next year - suggested decorations, where I've stored everything and general conclusions about the festivities.

Let's end with the Wise Men following the star.

Merry run up to Christmas.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 16

Two more small decorated corners.

Stay safe.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 15

The last of the tomatoes are being used up today ...

in our scrambled egg lunch. I fry the tomatoes in butter and then add the eggs.

A quick scrambling gives us a tasty meal. Well done tomato plants. Still got a few tomatoes left in the freezer.

Stay safe.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 14

Having said that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas yesterday, I will say it's beginning to look a lot like winter today. Every morning we have to wipe the windows because of the condensation.

It looks like it's raining doesn't it but most of our rooms have windows that look like this in the morning. Maybe we are being a bit too soft with warm central heating.

I remember when I was little - the windows had frost on the insides when it was very cold outside.

Stay safe.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 13

Feeding the Christmas cake

The cake is fed regularly with rum this year. You may think I have posted the same picture but there is one difference. Can you see?

Scroll down to find out. It has something to do with the greed and gluttony - not very positive traits. I'll just tell you that the cake is kept in this old Ikea glass container and greed and gluttony had a hand in this too!

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One crumb broke off so I ate it! There I've owned up. Not too much greed and gluttony I hear you say. Ah but the cake was bigger than the container when it came to putting it away so it had to be cut to size. (Substantially cut.) DH and I couldn't waste the cake now could we?  We couldn't throw the cut off piece away - so we ate it! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas now.

Stay safe.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 12

Just a very small gift for a wine drinking friend made from cotton yarn and some small charms.

Actually they are not charms as such but parts of my DD's cast off earrings. I just pulled off the fixing and threaded the small dingle dangle onto the yarn. These are now meant to be wine charms to put round the stem of a wine glass to identify the glass. I do hope she likes them.

Stay safe.

xx

 

Advent Calendar 11

Simple decorations this year - just little bits of decoration in different rooms. Easy to put up, easy to take down. These are in the bedroom.

Stay safe.

xx