Charlie Brown, you'd be proud...

I don't know if you are aware but in three days it will be Christmas Eve. 

I will openly admit that the week before last found me struggling to find anything close to a festive feeling.  I wanted to be able to share rosy, cheerful thoughts with you all about the upcoming holiday but as those thoughts weren't forthcoming, I'm afraid I had nothing to share.  And one whiny blog a month is more than enough. So I spared you, and for that, you are welcome. 

Unless of course you wanted to hear the story of my husband and I falling out over what colour lights he's put on the house or what size Christmas Tree we should get when we always get the same size...

On second thought I will share the story of our tree with you and my reason for this should be clear once you have read it: 

Andy opened our visit to the farm where we always get our tree with his usual 'we'll be wanting a 7 ft tree'.  (Nice try, Andy, but we always get a six foot tree).  Every year I have to remind him that a seven foot Christmas tree is too big for our living room.  I will give him full points for his annual attempt to get a bigger, more expensive tree. This year however, there were no decent 6ft trees to be had so I gave in and we picked out an enormous, but oh-so-glorious 7ft tree.  When you walk into our living room it not only smells like evergreen, it looks like our couch has been stuck in the middle of a forest. If we still lived in Canada I'd be worried that a passing bear might become confused and decide our couch would be the ideal place to crash for the winter months;  good thing that we don't have wild bears in England, and if we did they would be hibernating long before Christmas.  Although it is massive, I cannot lie:  It's the most f**king amazing tree we have had to date.  It's so big we had to find a new corner for it and buy a few more decorations and next year we will definitely revert back to a realistic 6 footer, but for now we are rocking this Christmas Tree.

And not only is the tree beautiful it has proven once again that my husband really should know that 99.9% of the time I am right.  Maybe on Christmas morning I will let him be right about one or two things as my gift to him, because I love him that much. 

I took Monday off this week in order to get some extra Christmas shopping done and can now say that I'm 95% finished.  We just have to do the last food shop and grab a few stocking stuffers. I took advantage of a quiet house late yesterday afternoon and managed to get quite a bit of baking done.  I'm dismayed that my caramel-chocolate shortbread squares didn't turn out though and will blame it on the neighbour (whom I'd never met) that came looking for help in getting his car started just at the crucial stirring point for the caramel.  It hasn't set right and because its a time consuming and calorie-ridden treat I will not attempt to make it again; there are enough calorie ridden goodies in my fridge at the moment and I haven't decided yet if I will attempt anymore baking. 

Last week we had a Christmas party for the clients of our service and this combined with a couple of festive evenings with friends enables me to report that I've found my Christmas spirit and am even hoping that the sprinkling of snow we have stays on the ground in order for us to have a white Christmas.  (This could be a very real possibility as we are experiencing record breaking lows in the temperature).  A lot of people are complaining about the cold but I don't mind it as it's what winter is for me.  I'd rather have the cold crisp air accompanied by lots of sunshine than the usual damp and dismal weather with matching grey sky England is known for.

 As much as I would have liked loved to have celebrated Christmas with my Canadian contingent, I'm relieved that we aren't facing the hassle and stress of trying to catch flights in all the turmoil that has been caused by the weather.  If we were going home to Nova Scotia I'd probably present to my family in a very drunken state due to all the stress and as my mom has already been exposed to drunk Jody once this season, I'm pleased I can spare her the hassle of that at least.