Drinks and nibbles.

Keith and I spent all morning cleaning the downstairs of the house and re-arranging the furniture in the conservatory, both in readiness for putting the decorations up this weekend and also because Sue and Michelle were coming around for a drink and nibbles in the evening.

It's been very mild today so I was able to open the windows and let some air in, but everything felt a bit damp. It was great to get the conservatory cleared out and tidied up and it looked lovely when I'd finished and set the table.

After having a shower, we went to get Sophie from work and went to Riverside. After having a quick lunch in Costa, Sophie and I went into Next while Keith went to Wilco's to get some batteries and light bulbs. I still didn't see anything I liked in the store so we met up with Keith and took Sophie back to work.

We went to buy all the nibbles at Aldi and Tesco in Kettering and I bought some delicious buffet foods. Before popping to Tesco we went into Next again and I spotted a silver table runner with six tablemats that would look lovely in the conservatory, so I bought them along with a star-shaped Christmas candle with my gift voucher. At last!

We spent more money in Tesco and I really think I bought too much food! However, the buffet was going to feed all six of us and I didn't want anyone to go hungry!

Back home my Mum called to ask if they could pop in on the way home and when they arrived I made them a cup of tea and tried to sort out a money problem for them. Before I knew it, Sophie was home from work and I started making preparations for the nibbles.

I had bought two bottles of sparkling non-alcoholic wine in Tesco - the usual Freixenet Cava and one from Australia - Rawson's Retreat. We only have three more nights to go! Yippee!

Sue and Michelle arrived and we had a great evening with a lot of laughing and gossip. The food went down very well and both of them loved the Cava (they each had some but had bought their own wine). We weren't so keen on the Rawson's Retreat, to be honest. It tasted like it was corked to me!

By 11pm we were all washed up and back to normal and I was more than ready for my bed!