Deck the halls!

Today was the day for putting up Christmas trees and decorations - we always try and do this on the first Sunday of December. Keith and Sophie took them down from the rafters of the garage and I found the decorations. I was banned from doing anything (I did put up our green Scandinavian tree) so I moved our wine rack from the corner of the kitchen to the worktop and did a lot of cleaning! It wasn't worth putting our lovely tree in the conservatory as we wouldn't see it!

The downstairs of the house was in an uproar for most of the morning until everything had been sorted out! It looked gorgeous when Sophie finished, though, and I wound lights around the wine rack to make it look more festive. I may keep them!

Gathering of the gonks - we need a new one for 2022!

I really love the lights at Christmas and I'd have them up all year round if I could! They're so cheerful and beautiful!

We worked hard and it was lovely to relax in the afternoon. Keith had prepared all the vegetables for dinner tonight and Sophie and I had elected to cook a roast - a turkey! We'll be eating it again in three weeks' time!

The weather today has been grey and dismal so it was lovely to see all the lights twinkling as it became darker in the afternoon. Sophie and I played Scrabble at 5pm with a glass of Spanish white, and I felt incredibly lucky that we had a lovely warm house, with a delicious dinner waiting to be cooked. I receive an email every Sunday night from a charity called 52 Lives, which aims to help someone in need every week by inspiring kindness in people. This week was a heartbreaking story of a young girl looking after her baby who literally had nothing. Already, the amount of donated money had exceeded the target, which was great news.

Our dinner was delicious and Sophie and I cooked it between us. It was a great trial run for the big day and the only change I'd make would be to cut the parsnips a bit bigger! They turned out to be a bit crispy!