Flutter

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The SNOW came fluttering down and I did a little skip - or maybe three. 10 years old again. Teachers saying don't look out of the window because it will make it stop. Don't believe them, I watched and watched, mesmerized. I enjoyed it with Little Bird who smiled and tapped the glass, pointing at flakes resting on the window pane. Beautiful flurries.

Today it is just icy, SLUSH and being dissolved by the rain. I am a little sad.

Edwardian Cobbles

Quiet local shopping in a peaceful stepping back in time courtyard. This is more my style. We popped into Blakemere , our local craft centre to have a look around and for a Christmas cheer injection. I still have a few presents to buy and this year it has been either local or online. In no way am I even attempting to go to the large shopping centres wheeling a carrier bag laden buggy around for my sanity. Quiet and escaping the mad rush is for me and more time watching Christmas films feeling smug. The CD player has A Disney Christmas blasting and I am getting quite giddy now as the day approaches. Will it snow soon? That is all I need to complete the feeling now.

Trees at the Forest Train Station

Our tradition is to fetch the Christmas tree from Delamere Forest. First stop was the tree sales at the forest train station - such a beautiful nostalgic place. An impatient Little Bird meant I had to be much better this year at picking our tree. There was none of the usual, he looks a bit spindly, he's a bit lopsided, his top's bent or can you spin 'him' around for the gazillionth time. This year I had to be quick with minimal fuss. Hence, we ended up at the main sales site a bit further up the road where all the trees are in rows according to height and type so we literally ran in - 6 ft Nordman Fir thank you very much and then ran out again £40 lighter in the pocket.

Thankfully the decoration stage at home was a bit more relaxed with Little Bird enjoying nosing through all the bits and bobs in the Christmas box. Colourful lights are a very big hit as we have a colour fascination phase at the moment. I thought I might struggle with toddler proofing the tree but after picking the non breakables to go at the bottom and an initial Little Bird moving around of sparkly drums and stars, he is now mostly ignoring the tree! *Sigh*

Pink and fuzzy

Hmmmm what to do when over the years you have accumulated so much Christmas junk treasure, bags of baubles and trimmings separated into various colour schemes? There was the contemporary tree in brown and teal, the silver and white tree for the Narnia experience, black and white was sophisticated -many phases over the years. Traditional in red, green and gold or maybe just all gold or all red - bows, beads or tinsel - maybe that is old fashioned in a bad way now? White lights, blue LED lights or multicoloured? Choices, choices.
So prior to getting our main real tree we used one years bauble fad and put up a candy coloured, girly, slightly silly pink fuzzy fake tree up. You can't beat a bit of Wizzard playing in the background too.

24 Lovely Nights

The letter to Father Christmas has been written and sent - now we wait. The Advent train has chugged in and we have a chocolate (or maybe 2) each day to be naughty and have for breakfast. I'm not sure my Little Bird understands all the fuss as yet but I will certainly be showing him the best I can. So now it is 24 lovely days and nights of fairy lights, mulled wine (of the non alcoholic version for me), yuletide food, lots of Christmas music and watching plenty of seasonal films. Also, I can use my Christmas edition Cath Kidston bag - yippee!

Happy December 1st xxx