Christmas Eve?

I am finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit at the moment. It feels like it should be November rather than December, and today certainly hasn't felt like Christmas Eve!

Sophie went to the gym this morning, and at 11am we drove to Weedon. The fog was thick as we drove over, and I was hoping that the sun would burn through, but although it cleared a bit, the weather has remained grey all day. We were going to go to the antique centre first, but we'd booked a table at Darlington's for 12.45, and knew we wouldn't have enough time to have a good look around.

We went straight to the Shires Shopping Village, and Sophie went on the hunt for presents for Mike. Rather than give him more alcohol, she picked out some sweets that she knew he liked and said she'd make up a gift bag. One of the selections was a kind of Russian roulette of jelly beans - good or horrible!

We were both ready for lunch and chose our usual - a shared club sandwich, a couple of glasses of wine as it was Christmas, and delicious desserts. I chose cherry pie with custard while Sophie went for chocolate cake and ice cream. The restaurant was pleasantly busy but not packed, and it was lovely to sit and relax for an hour. 

Sophie had an appointment at the beauty salon at 3pm, and we were astonished to find it was 2pm when we finished our lunch, so she called them and pushed it back to 4pm. We wanted to go to the antique place, but when we got there it was all closed up! Typical! I keep forgetting it's Christmas Eve! As we both have days off next week, we'll probably drive over and have a good look around then.

We were now early for the appointment so Sophie called the beauty salon again, and a rather disgruntled woman said she could have an appointment at just after 3pm. The weather had got worse while we were having lunch and it had started raining. What a horrible day!

Back home we finished all of our present wrapping and relaxed. Yesterday felt like Friday, but today definitely did when I took Keith and Mike to the pub. Keith had prepared a sausage casserole which was simmering in the oven, so dinner tonight was very easy.

We sat and ate in the conservatory for the first time in ages, and had a lovely meal. After dinner, Mike disappeared out to Brixworth with friends and I had an early night. I had been awake at about 7.30am this morning and wanted to feel my best for the big day tomorrow!