Adventures in the jouyous run up to CHRISTMAS!

You may or may not have realised, but Christmas is indeed coming and I've been getting super duper excited for it!

This year with being back in work, I was a little worried about being able to see either side of my family at all, and being that we live in totally different regions of the country, Christmas is more about family to us now than it ever was before. Thankfully my manager at work is one of those great guys who really appreciates that Christmas isn't just about the 25th December, and he's taken into account my wishes for my work schedule. This means that I'm actually going to get to spend time over Christmas with both mine and my husbands immediate families, and even see an aunty and uncle! This is the first Christmas we'll have seen so much of both sides of the family together, and the second Christmas where we haven't traveled to either ones family. It's quite a relief, and means we get the best of both worlds without the stress and hassle that comes with staying as a guest in someone elses house, however close they may be.

A Christmas tree on a Christmas crate!

All this means that I'm over the moon with excitement and anticipation for Christmas, but December hasn't been without it's festive themed delights already. We've got a lovely little tree this year, and cleared out a space for it. It's no bigger than the one we usually have, only 3ft, but our flat is so tiny it wouldn't be practical to have anything too much bigger. This years offering is a little less weedy than the usual, however, and I've invested in yet more beautiful decorations. By that I mean I bought loads of little birds to stick in my tree, because I find birds to be ever so enchanting and charming. And the single bird I bought last year was ever so lonely on her own. I've also invested in an angel topper to replace our icky plastic star. We always had angels when I was a little girl, and I dunno, maybe it's because they have wings like birds, I just love them. She doesn't really fit in with the glittery blue, silver, purple and pink of the tinsel and baubles, as she's a white crochet angel, but she's so delightful and sweet I couldn't help myself. The tree itself is not perched precariously on top of the gas meter cabinet this year, where it usually goes, but I covered an old crate in gold crepe paper and stuck it on there, to give it a bit more "presence" in the room. This is grate because I can stash all the presents in the crate until Christmas eve (as the place is so small, if I just stuck them decoratively beneath the tree it would soon become cluttered)

The tree always marks the beginning of the run up for me, but the second big thing is that Laila usually comes to visit us here in Liverpool. She's like a second sister to me, and we quickly get to giggling like maniacal little children as soon as we bang our heads together. We had a great day, participating in the drinking of much tea, coffee, the eating of cakes, and also pizza, and the perusing of the wonderful bits and bobs to be found in the Liverpool Christmas market. We had a few other plans but a rainy day called them off, and then tarrying over lunch meant we were a little late to go to the cinema, however we had a much needed catch up, and much festive joy was shared.

One of the things about Laila's annual Christmas adventure to Liverpool that I REALLY love, however, and I hope you don't mind me saying this dear, but it is the annual Christmas gift from Laila. I have many lovely and generous friends who get me lovely and thoughtful gifts that I treasure, but Laila is an expert in the art of packaging. This year it meant that to get to the goodies within the gift bag I ended up covering the cafe we were sat in with angel and snow flake shaped confetti as I pulled out reams of silver and blue tinsel! The only problem I had afterwards was wondering what to do with it, as it always seems a shame to put such thought to waste. Well, Laila, last night I put your tinsel to good use and made a tinsel wreath!

It's nothing amazingly complex, I simply twisted the blue and silver tinsels around one another, then wrapped the resulting twisty awesomeness around an old embroidery hoop that I rescued from my Granny's bin in April but have yet to use. I fixed it with some craft wire, and then hung some old plastic baubles that I didn't use on the tree this year with the same stuff. I also fixed a cheeky little song bird on it from my tree. I know it's a total hodgepodge riot of different colours and textures, but actually I quite like the deep, warm colour of the baubles against the light, frosty tinsel. I think it's gonna be a keeper, not too bad for a load of stuff that would have otherwise ended up in landfill!

Snow on the street where I live!

I've plenty of social engagements and chores that need to be done over the upcoming week or so. For starters, the place is in no fit state to have the family around...don't worry, it's not at all back to Corner of Shame levels of disorder, but it is in dire need of a seasonal cleanup just to straighten things out again. I have a Christmas meal with my best friends as well as family coming, and then a wonderful new years party to look forward to. I can't wait to put my new dress, although I'm struggling with what to do with my hair. A good old fashioned 50's beehive may be the way of it! In the meantime we've just had a healthy amount of snow dumped on us here in Liverpool...not an atrocious amount, and no where near as much as we did last year, but it's enough to make me feel even more Christmassy! Could we be having a white Christmas here on Merseyside this year? Only a week and a bit to go!

But anyhow, I shall stop my ramblings and head on back to enjoying my day off to write Christmas cards and sing Christmas songs. Whatever you're doing on the run up to Christmas I hope you enjoy it, and I shall no doubt be posting up again before the big day arrives!