These three photos sum up my festive mood at the moment:
1) a pair of ceramic house tea light lanterns bought at the Bath Christmas market last week,
2) a stolen afternoon for Andrew and me in front of the telly with Home Alone 2, tea and mince pies,
and 3) my adorable little niece at the village Christingle service a couple of weeks ago.
Things are not quite calm and bright yet but I feel as though we might be getting there. My workroom is finally straight after a thorough sort out on Monday morning - I just have a bundle of thread skeins to wind onto bobbins and then I will feel organised enough to complete the embroidered bookmark commission that I am currently working on.
We are still eating ready meals, though, so I am planning a whole menu for next week (which I privately refer to as 'Christmas week') so that we can eat lots of seasonal vegetables and comfort food like mashed potato and risotto in the run up to Christmas Day. We still don't have a tin of Quality Street in the house and I need to rectify that tout de suite!
I have been out and about over the last couple of days; yesterday was Lizzie's Christmas-hairdo-day and then I went off to a watercolour class that I'll be joining weekly from February. I have been looking for a good art class for months and finally managed to reserve a space at a Wednesday morning class. I have got some homework to get started on throughout January and I have put some lovely sable paintbrushes and art supplies on my birthday wish list.
This morning I went to church for my eldest niece's school advent service. It was very sweet; there is something about children singing Silent Night or Away in a Manger that tugs hard on my heart strings and puts a lump in my throat. This morning there was a mishap involving a small boy and his microphone - it gave my sister and I the uncontrollable giggles. The more we tried to stop ourselves laughing, the worse it got until eventually Sarah erupted in a shout of laughter and fell behind the pew with her shoulders shaking and eyes streaming. My mum and grandma were there too and had no idea what had tickled us; in fact my grandmother looked a bit cross that we were misbehaving in church. Makes me laugh just thinking about it now.
After church, when Izzie had gone back to school, we all squished into Mabel (my little fiat), cranked up Feliz Navidad on repeat and navigated the winding country roads to a local garden centre for a full English breakfast. It really was the most lovely morning; my grandma was in the front of the car with me having a little seat shimmy and sing-along. It made me happy to see her so cheerful as she was wired up to a pacemaker on Saturday and is feeling a bit sore and sorry for herself.
Tonight Andrew and I are watching the football with a takeout pizza and I am going to give myself the night off with my knitting. Back to the needle and thread first thing tomorrow morning so I can get my work done before Christmas.
Hope everyone is having a lovely week - thanks for stopping by again :)
Love, Nicki
xOx