Deck the halls!

I was awake at 6.30am this morning and ready for a hectic day. Outside, the sun was about to rise, and it looked like it was going to be a gorgeous day. Cold, but sunny, and just how I like it!

Once coffee and Wordle were out of the way, we made a start and brought the trees in from the garage. We hadn't bothered to put them up on the eaves, and it felt like we'd only just packed them away. Who knew that when we packed them up last year, we'd lose two members of our family?

Sophie did an absolutely fantastic job of putting up the trees and decorating them. We moved one of the armchairs into the window, and I cleaned and dusted. My job was to arrange the gonks, and I had trouble getting them all onto the little set of shelves! I also put up our Santa Claus wreath on the front door and replaced the batteries in the lights.

The house was in uproar as we cleaned and decorated, but by 2.30pm, we were all done. Sophie and I ordered food, beer and paper plates, etc, from the Tesco grocery website for delivery on the 10th of December, so that was sorted and for a fraction of the price that the pub was going to charge. 

We also picked out photos and music for the service, which made me a bit tearful. We had to feel that the music was right and the lyrics suitable. I had twenty-six photos to find that portrayed my Dad's life, and I was pleased with the ones we chose.

At about 2.45pm, we drove to the tip to take the boxes and old planes of my Dad's as they were cluttering up the garage. Why I didn't get rid of them five years ago, I'll never know. We had to book our slot, and the tip was quiet with only another couple of cars there. Most of the stuff we managed to recycle, which was good news as I would have hated to see his things go into general waste.

Once we were done at the tip, we drove into Brixworth and visited the Co-op for squirty cream, marshmallows and hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I could only find hot chocolate and the Sunday newspaper, so we drove to Mawsley instead, where I was able to find what we wanted for a hearty drink when we got home!

We took the scenic route and stopped to take photos of the sunset and the gorgeous sky:

Sophie made the hot chocolates when we arrived home, and I scanned the photos we'd picked onto the computer and made a folder. I was shocked when I opened up the folder after adding a couple of photos to see one entitled "Man in the clouds" and the outline of a face... I have no idea where it came from, and then it disappeared a little while later. I can't explain it at all.

We made a unanimous decision to skip dinner tonight (beef stroganoff) and have sandwiches instead! We settled down to watch Christmas With The Kranks, lit the candles and made sure the heating was turned up! It was a lovely end to a hectic day!