08 January 2017

7th and 8th January are the saddest days of the year for me - I take down ALL the Christmas and New Year decorations. The lot - the trees (ok, yes, I'm a serial Christmas Tree decorator, one in every room but the powder and bathrooms where I content myself with a lovely fake poinsettia), the garlands (again, serial garland and Christmas card displayed as 'bunting' zig-zagging the front hall just above door height), the door wreath, the candle bridges (if you've never seen one, Google candle bridges - they're GORGEOUS), the fake poinsettias strewn about the house...sigh.

The house ALWAYS looks so bare, so forlorn when everything is down and being cleaned then packed away for next year. This year I'm consoling myself with an embroidery project (a 'mantle cloth' to drape on the front hall shelf - a snowman motif, big woo) and a crocheted then stuffed 'snow family' (Mum, Dad, baby snowmen) to set on the shelf in the front hall next to the cordless phone handset and the 'page a day' desktop diary. The bowl of festive and fragrant potpourri that's been on that shelf for the last two years finally 'expired' (ok, read moulded, nasty really, I binned it and don't think I'll be doing 'festive and fragrant bowls of potpourri again. Ever)

I've even gone through all the Christmas cards received this year and wordDOTdoc'd the signatures (and addresses where people have been thoughtful enough to include them inside or on the back of the actual card) - very helpful when making out the next season greetings list!

On a much happier note, I FINALLY found a replacement 'finial' tree topper for our main Christmas tree to replace the one Fox accidentally broke when he was about four. That thing had been in the family since 1926, I'm not sure how Fox got ahold of it but he did and of course it broke into a thousand VERY sharp and dangerous bits and of course I bit my tongue and cheek until blood trickled down my chin - and of course I hid the copious tears from Fox. I did my crying in the cupboard. And now I've found a reproduction of the EXACT one that was on my father's childhood Christmas trees, my childhood and several of my adult years (well, you know, until Fox...) Christmas trees.

I've finally got Mr Curmudgeon completely sold on Christmas decorating. He hid in the study as I de-decked the halls, and went a bit red-eyed when I came for his study Christmas tree. He came into the bedroom where I have the decorations ready for packing away, looked for a long minute, sighed, then fled for the sanctuary of his study again.

I've also got him hooked on classic Christmas movies. He now says 'It's Christmas!' the first time Polar Express is broadcast - no matter, apparently, that we own a DVD of that and other classics like It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street (we both blub a little when Father Christmas speaks Dutch to the young refugee), White Christmas, and of course Santa Claus the Movie (which is naff beyond belief but now when my Paul sees garish Christmas decor he says 'Oh no, more 'Patch Christmas!' in reference to, well, you have to see the movie to know what I mean).

AND - I AM FINALLY CHRISTMAS STORAGE ORGANISED!! Yes, Paul is so into Christmas (finally!) he was perfectly happy (ok, mostly perfectly happy, he did grump about the horrific traffic) to drive me down to Dundee to Dunelm Mill for the plastic storage box sale so we won't lose any decorations again. (sigh. There is still a cardboard box missing (tree skirts, lights sets, hand-glittered pinecones) but almost everything is here.) I now have the fake evergreens in one long box, and three more boxes of baubles, new skirts, mantle displays, etc - everything sorted according to type and I really couldn't be happier about that organisation!

Bonus, I've finally managed to sell Paul on the gorgeousity of vintage-look reproduction glass baubles, so much so we've 'wish-listed' several sets on AmazonUK to buy one set per month. Best? Best is he's finally agreed fake evergreens are completely fab and we're buying a 6 foot Balsam Hill PE 'most realistic' tree for next year. He's also decided he rather likes the look of icicle lights along the roofline, and the topiary boxwoods flanking the front door are going to have their own set of lights as well...

OMGosh - it's going to take me a week to decorate, and four days to take it all down January 2018! YAY!!!! (No, really, I'm really looking forward to Christmas 2017 - God willing we'' still be here and enjoying a lovely Christmas:)