Deck the halls!

We awoke to grey skies and rain this morning. Not a great start to the month!

Keith and I went to get the newspaper first thing and then it was home to have breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches. Keith had already taken the trees down from the garage rafters so we lugged them inside and after Sophie had showered, we made a start in the conservatory.

As always, we put our little Scandi tree in the corner and took out all our decorations - we now have so many and some of them are beautiful. I especially love the ones from Florida and Berlin. I put the lights on while Sophie decorated and afterwards we sat down to sort out the Christmas cards from last year. I keep them so I get people's names right (!) and then Sophie cuts them up to make gift tags.

Keith went to the football in the afternoon, despite his cough and cold. Once he had gone we moved into the living room and re-arranged the furniture so we could put the tree in the corner. We had a bit of an ordeal setting the stand up but as soon as it was assembled and we'd "fluffed" the tree up, Sophie dressed it while I tidied everything away.

We were very pleased with the results when we'd finished and we sat down to watch a Christmas film until Keith got home from the football. I went upstairs to have a bath in readiness for my night out with the estate women (about fifteen of us were going to the local pub) and Sophie had a well-earned nap.

She did my hair for me and I wore my festive red top with black trousers. I have another Christmas meal to go to next Friday but I've chosen Pork Belly this time! I didn't want to have too many turkey dinners before the big day!

Sue called for me at 7.30pm and we picked up another lady, whose children I used to look after at After-School club. When we got to the pub it was packed and very hot! Now, the decision time was upon me...would I drink alcohol or not? I'd never given up the demon drink for a month so I wasn't really sure how I would be after a couple of glasses, so I decided to stick to soft drinks tonight and then have a G&T tomorrow at home. I didn't want to get drunk!

Paul had given us ladies a lift up but some of the women had walked so as soon as they'd arrived we went upstairs to our table and took our places. There were quite a few women there who I didn't know and the way the table was laid out made it difficult to chat to them so they still remain strangers! I sat with Sue and a lady I'd never met before and as she didn't know anyone else, we took her under our wing.

We had to wait ages for our food and those women who hadn't ordered a starter were famished by the time the mains arrived! I chose crab and lobster tail in a sweet creamy mayonnaise sauce served with crusty bread, followed by turkey and all the trimmings. When they put the veggies on our table Sue and I fell upon them like starving rats!

The food was good but there was a strange mix of flavours on my plate...I think it was the cranberry sauce. I enjoyed my dessert though, which was an orange and chocolate cheesecake. As it was someone's birthday Sue had made a beautiful cake so we all had a slice of that as well. Phew!

By 11.30pm the party was breaking up but the woman opposite us seemed determined to drink on so I texted Sophie and asked if Keith could come and pick us up. That was definitely the right decision as it was pouring with rain by now! We left the others to their full glasses of wine and headed home where I went straight to bed. No headache for me in the morning!