18th December: Decorating Day (Part 2)

Today started early for a Sunday, when I crept downstairs and curled up on the sofa in front of the Christmas tree to enjoy the glow of and lights and the smell of the fir.Watching Ginny's pupils' concert on Youtube. All real gems!Lighting the fourth advent candle! Only one more to go now, which will be lit on Christmas Day!The snow is still here (although it's turned to ice) and the dogs just love to roll on it!Working together (with no falling-out) to get the Christmas Tesco order sorted.Going to collect the greenery from the garden: ivy, holly and spruce.Even though I always end up with scratches, I still love putting together the greenery into sprays and garlands.Seeing the lights that Judith and Ginny have been putting up, watching the house turn Christmassy!Getting a certain something fixed in the house - I won't go into details but my goodness! What a relief!Sitting together, somewhat leisurely, for cups of tea and Christmas biscuits. Simple, yes, but moments like these can't be recaptured.Looking for footprints in the snow, and finding some we couldn't identify. A mystery is always exciting!Touching the soil in my raised bed, and marvelling at how shoots can still push through even though the surface is rock hard.Orlando (sprocker) stroked Jess (cocker). I wish I'd got it on camera, as it was so cute.Having a lovely warm bath after working in the freezing cold conservatory throughout the day.Having a mix-match dinner: it always feels like the build-up to Christmas when dinner is made up of lots of different parts.I'm not a football fan, but it was lovely to watch Dad, Ginny and Judith getting so excited to see the World Cup Final.Looking through the Bath Novel Award teasers. None of them look like they could be mine, but it was fun reading them as they came up.Introducing Jess to Rusty, the singing Christmas dog we won at a tombola! I wonder if she'll learn to sing as well as Rusty.