It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ...

It's only taken us a week, but finally the Christmas tree went up yesterday - I promised Ethan that we'd do it on Monday, but first we had to clear all the crap out of the lounge (when I say crap, I mean several boxes of stamp stocks in particular). So, finally it was done, and we very nearly put the tree up on Friday night, but I was tired, Ethan was tired and we decided it would be better to wait until the morning.


Now, when I say 'we' put the tree up, what I mean is that the boys did it. It's become a bit of a tradition now, one that I started because I knew that the kids would get a great sense of achievement of having done it all by themselves (plus as Sean says, when I do it, it's 'crap'). They did do a fabulous job of it though, so I can't complain (even if they hadn't done a great job I would have left it alone).

It would have been nice to have a nice relaxing day, chilling out while enjoying the twinkling of the lights on the tree, but it was not to be ... Ethan had a birthday party to go to, Sean went out shopping with one of his friends, Colin got called out to work ... so I popped into work myself to finish off a few things before Jenny comes back tomorrow (she has gone into semi-retirement and has been off for five weeks. I have been killing myself trying to keep on top of everything, with the help of our new (very) junior medical secretary). I had just enough time to finish the bits I wanted to do before dashing back to pick Mr Than back up from his party.

We finished our day off with a trip to Jimmy's Spices for dinner - it was packed in there (not surprising on a Saturday night just before Christmas). The food was good, and I managed not to completely gorge myself (it's so difficult when there are so many delicious things to choose from).

And today? Today has been quite chilled out despite rushing around. A nice long lie-in, followed by a nice hot cappuccino (I bought myself a Dolce Gusto machine last week) while I checked my e-mail and surfed the net. Then I tootled off to Boundary Mills (just off the M6) to have a look for some bargains ... I was there for a couple of hours, and managed to pick up a few Christmas presents. The place is huge and has some really nice stuff - which I had to bypass as I was desperate to focus on pressie buying. They have an M&S Outlet there, but I didn't think a lot of the selection of stuff there (quite a lot of clothes - none that would fit me), and a few gifty type things. Still, I got some Christmas cards, wrapping paper and Christmas crackers all at reduced prices and a couple of presents, so it wasn't all bad.

After my little sojourn to Boundary Mills, I decided to go to The Fort on the way home. Great - apart from trying to find a parking space for 20 minutes! I popped into Boots and managed to pick up another few pressies, and then into Evans to get some tights ... but I ended up coming out with a camisole and a long cardigan as well (the cardigan was half price and marked as being made with 'luxury yarn' - 84% acrylic, 8% nylon and 8% wool - I'm not quite sure how that constitutes luxury yarn, but still, it's nice).

Being lazy, we had KFC for dinner, and I've enjoyed an evening of chilling out in front of the TV with some knitting, and then made a nice big mug of cocoa and came to bed.

I also got my swap details for the Winter Warmers Swap on Ravelry, and I've had a cursory search for some suitable patterns and yarn ... I'm really going to enjoy putting together a parcel for my swap partner, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Oh well, up early tomorrow for work ...