creating Christmas * day 22

The Christmas tree

I can hardly believe it is day 22 today and I still have a few tasks left to do; just little things, but don’t little things always take the most time.

Thank you, for all the kind comments, any helpful suggestions always welcome here!

I couldn’t write each day about all the things that make a Christmas, without including the Christmas tree. I would think it is the one thing that most people have at Christmas even if they have no other decorations.

DH and I decided against a real one this year. It is only the second time in our 49 years of marriage (soon to be the big 50). The other time, was last year when we were so busy at home after spending so much of the year selling our cottage, we just didn’t have any energy left to go out and buy one, so we rummaged in the loft and found a very ancient IKEA one that my daughter left behind when she moved out.

It has made an appearance again this year. We will be away for Christmas so in a way it made sense. It has been patiently waiting in the corner of our living room for Master Freddie to come and decorate it, and I must say he made a fine job, though my heart was in my mouth a few times when I heard the chink of my delicate, glass vintage baubles (some of which must be as old, if not older, then me.

He insisted we had a star on top, and not one of the angels we usually have.

So we made a star from some gold glittery card. It might be the only thing I might swap out, when he is not looking, as I do like my little fluffy angel.

After the tree we attempted to put the marzipan and icing on the cake. I only do the top in a flat ready to roll fondant and then cheat a little round the sides, with one of those old fashioned paper frills.

With the left over scraps Freddie made a snowman. I think he did very well, and managed to get most of the black icing onto the snowman and not himself (though he did go home quite a shade of pink from a red felt tip pen he had used for doing some colouring)

The snowman will no doubt take his place amongst the rest of the cast when all the grandchildren get together on Christmas Eve to put the decorations in place on top of the cake. It has become quite a tradition over the years, and this year all four of them will be giving a helping hand. Each year, the same Christmas characters are placed on the cake, but all end up in different positons to the year before. They have great fun doing this and it saves me a job.

This picture below is one of the previous years – as you can see it gets a little crowded some years, but I just love their creativity. I have bought a new Santa this year as the old one is looking rather jaded now and I hope the snowmen aren’t too worried about the new snowman on the block.

Just as I had my hands on the rolling pin today I had a call…not from mum this time, but her main carer. It appears that mum has a crack in the toilet seat on her commode and although the carer had mentioned it to my sister two weeks ago, it had been overlooked. Not surprising as my sister has just been moving house. I had no idea which body provided the commode when she returned to her own home from the care home two years ago. A quick call to social services at Teeside and I was given a number for Community Equipment Services ( commode department) ….no just joking there!

They will send one out tomorrow – quite a Christmas present for mum – not sure who the lucky person will be though that has to fit the new seat – I rather think it could be DH on Boxing Day. I won’t tell him, might spoil his Christmas.

I spoke too soon about mum. I had a call at 4.45am . Like most people I was fast asleep and being rather disorientated at the rude awakening, I didn’t get to answer quick enough, so it went to voicemail and mum left a message. I thought something terrible had happened, and it had according to mum…firstly, she was irrate that it was ‘leave a message’ which she hates and then said perhaps I could tell her if Vera was on TV tonight. I rang her straight back and told her the time, she hadn’t realised it was the early hours and said she must have fallen asleep straight away when the carer put her to bed and left a 7 o’clock.

I am hoping for a better night tonight.

I will leave you all with another picture of the Advent calendar as most of the windows have now been opened and it is looking much more colourful.

Once again, I am just in time to post this before I fall exhausted into my bed. Tomorrow, is the last serious attempt to get everything done and ready, and will include some packing (something I have done very little of this year), so I might be a tad rusty.

With the Christmas tree in place, joyous carols singing away in the background, the cards made and in the post, the cake iced and the handmade gifts delivered, tomorrow, will also be the last of my creating Christmas posts – so what could go wrong so close to the finish….mum perhaps?

Back very soon x

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