Getting ready!

I was up at 6am this morning and waved Sophie off to the gym. The day was promising to be a lovely one, with clear skies and a beautiful sunrise.

Keith and I had a busy morning as we took some bits to the tip, including Mike's old wardrobe. As soon as we returned home I put a colour on my hair as it was long overdue! At 12.30pm we went down to get Sophie from work and had a quick lunch in Costa. The traffic was really heavy today - maybe everyone was doing a spot of Christmas shopping in their lunch hour?

After Costa we went to Boots and then I made a quick trip to Wilko's to get some bird food. The poor things haven't had any fat snax for a couple of days and have had to make do with food scraps!

We dropped Sophie back at work and made the journey over to Kettering to do some shopping. Tonight we planned on using up the leftover vegetables and Yorkshire puddings from yesterday's roast to make bubble and squeak and we bought some sausages to go with it. I treated myself to a bottle of sherry and a bottle of ginger wine in Aldi as Christmas isn't Christmas without a glass of sherry before lunch on the big day! I also love a Whisky Mac at this time of the year - it's so warming! I also put an Italian Panettone in the trolley to try it!

In Tesco I chose a present for my Dad from Sophie, so we're getting there, as well as a couple of boxes of chocolate biscuits. Everything has to be bought and wrapped before the weekend, hopefully!

Back home it was time to relax, have a cup of tea and some shortbread and wait for Sophie to come home. She called from her car to say the traffic was horrendous and she arrived home at 6pm. I was having a soak in the bath as it was so cold outside but the weather is set to change later in the week and become mild. No snow on the horizon at all!

We had a lovely evening watching Escape to the Chateau and Gino D'Campo's latest foodie tour around the Adriatic coast of Italy. We then finished the evening with Mary Berry's show in which various celebrities cooked with her. Huw Edwards was the funniest...he just about managed to wrap some sausages in bacon and the banter between them was very suggestive at times!