Another clear-out!

I woke up later than normal this morning but by 9am I was removing all the decorations from the tree in the conservatory and putting them in boxes, ready to store them until next Christmas!

Sophie joined me and made a start on the tree in the living room and after everything had been taken off, Keith boxed them both up and put them on the eaves in the garage. We managed to get all the boxes of decorations into the plastic crate I'd bought, but there wasn't much room left over! I just hope they'll be OK up there until December, which seems a long way off, but isn't! We decided to keep our precious gonks in a bag in our wardrobe - I would hate for anything to happen to them!

I made a start on hoovering but then went with Keith to the tip to take some cardboard and the clothes we'd thrown out. After getting a paper at the Co-op in Brixworth, we headed home where I found Sophie had done a lot of the cleaning and the house looked lovely.

We carried on upstairs and by 1pm we were all finished. I've left some lights up - the ones along the fireplace, on the cabinet in the study and along the curtains so that will cheer us up in the dark months of January and February!

At 2pm Sophie and I went out - I dropped her off at the gym and then popped to Tesco to buy some wine for tonight as we are off to Sue and Paul's. I had to get a Chenin Blanc to pair with a bottle of Vouvray and also some flowers and chocolates to take around.

Tesco was busy and I queued for ages at the checkout. On the way back to the car I met Liam so we had a very brief chat and then it was off to collect Sophie who had finished her workout. We headed home to find Keith had gone off to see Sileby play and I enjoyed some cheese and biscuits while watching last night's episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Sophie is now hooked!

At 7pm Keith and I crossed the road to Sue and Paul's and shortly after we said our hellos, Richard and Michelle arrived. We had a glass of Prosecco laced with Sloe Gin to start and enjoyed a buffet of quiche, new potatoes and salad that Sue had prepared.

We had to take Vouvray and Chenin Blanc to see if Paul could detect one of his favourite wines! The wine I had taken was on the sweet side but most of us liked it. The Chenin Blanc - from South Africa - was drier, so we had a good discussion as to why! The next two wines were the Yellowtail Shiraz that Paul loves, and a Rioja, which I have decided I don't really like, to be honest!

After we had enjoyed the red wines, we had dessert as Paul had made a pear and nut cake which was lovely. It was very moist and light. By 10.30pm Keith was feeling really tired so we headed home but before bed we watched the last episode of Code 37: Sex Crimes, so we had a later night than anticipated!