Christmas without angels at our house would be like a picnic without sandwiches.
Since my two daughters were about six and seven, I have always put an angel in the top of their stocking.
Over the years, they have been made of many different materials – paper, wood, ceramic, wire and even a knitted one…. and when I was desperate and couldn’t find any one year, they had chocolate ones.
The photo above was the cute angel from December 2023 and one of my favourites. You can see more of them here on a previous Christmas post.
This year, I have struggled again to find angels in the shops amongst the abundance of mice and dinosaurs; they are definitely in short supply!
On the journey home from Elizabeth Gaskell’s house yesterday, we called at a garden centre for a hot chocolate. The Christmas display that met us as we walked in through the door was rather overwhelming, but at last, hanging between a polar bear and a frosted bauble, I spied an angel.
They are quite unusual, made of pottery of some kind with a raised gold decoration and quite heavy for their tiny size. They are snuggly wrapped in tissue paper now, hiding away until it is time to make their appearance on Christmas day.
Earlier today, I did some more work on the Christmas gifts for my four friends. We only give small presents, usually under £10 and mine are often handmade or a mix of something handmade and bought.
This year, by request, I am making the calendars once more with pictures in and around our village.
I have been taking photos all year on our walks around the village ready to edit and print them. They are only small desktop ones..not very intrusive or requiring wall space.
Along with the calendar I am planning (though this might not work out) to make some tiny gingerbread stars that will be partially dipped in white or dark chocolate and perhaps a sprinkle of gold decoration as well. These will be put into a cellophane bag and dropped into a lovely Christmas glass that has a raised Christmas tree on the front amidst a flurry of snowflakes that I bought weeks ago in Sainsbury’s.
Well, that is the plan and another post, another day.
We havea few busy days coming up now; we will be out all day tomorrow and then the girls (Little L and Sweetie) are coming to stay and we will no doubt be crafting.
I had an idea as I fell asleep last night to use some glittery gold and silver card and coloured tissue that I have in my craft boxes to make some hanging stars with them.
This is a prototype I made up quickly today. I think once hung in a cluster, the light will shine through the tissue like a stained glass window. Each star that I cut out then makes a smaller star. It will be very much a ‘watch this space’.
Today’s Advent window was a Christmas pudding. I won’t be making one this year as we are going to my sister’s house, but generally I just buy a small one for DH as it is far too sweet for me these days. I love the look of them though.
And now I am ready for putting my feet up and watching the catch up of Shetland on the TV.
There are always a few moments during Christmas when we pause to remember someone that we have lost. As you know recently, one of my special friends passed away and today is the 10th anniversary of another special friend who died after a long battle with cancer. She was a colleague at work and we sat together side by side for over 13 years (being affectionately called Hinge and Bracket by our colleagues!).
Working together each day we knew each other and our families so well. If I was having a bad day she would disappear into the kitchen and make me a hot chocolate as she knew that was my comfort drink. We supported each other in many ways and subsequently through our respective cancers and treatments, but unfortunately, Helen’s cancer returned and became terminal and she passed away in 2015.
Since then, the eighth of December has been referred to as Helen’s flowers day here and I take a small posie of flowers round to her mum together with a Christmas card and a little message of remembrance as a small guesture that Helen will not be forgotten.
She was, for me, the best colleague anyone could have wished for and we would laugh and joke through every day together, often till tears ran down our cheeks.
I hope everyone is getting ahead with whatever Christmas plans you have, some are elaborate some more simple but everyone in blogland seems to be enjoying the season so far.
My Advent calendar is looking quite pretty now as I open a few windows and reveal the little colourful picture behind each one. I will take a picture tomorrow. Surprisingly, I cannot remember myself what is behind each window even though I made it myself.
I looked after the boys yesterday for a while, Master Freddie and baby Chocolate, and I had a request to come and make gingerbread men with granny. How sweet is that! As it happens the girls Little L and Sweetie will be down to stay over the weekend, I had planned to make some Christmas mice with them but maybe they would like to make gingerbread men or a house too along with the boys.
Like many bloggers my Christmas preparations are in full swing and I find myself in mild panic.
Having started the initial preparations and made a note of all things Christmas in my notebook I am wondering if this will be the simple and stress free Christmas I am planning, hoping for after all.
But I am raring to go now….the Christmas spirit is quite infectious – all around decorations and lights to mark the season are appearing daily in our village.
I love the time spent preparing, decorating and gift-giving but I must admit it seems to get harder to fulfill everything on the list that I want to do. The reward at the end of spending time with my friends and family and keeping up those traditions…new ones that we have made and old ones that we love to continue, is well worth the ‘busyness’ beforehand.
As part of the big pre-Christmas clean up I was determined to finish cleaning the oven this week, it had taken a while with a number of interruptions – but now it is sparkling clean – a good refresh before I begin baking the cake and making the nutroast. Cleaning out the freezer will be next…it is frost free but needs a bit of a wipe down and sort out.
Usually, throughout November as part of my plans I start stocking up on all those basic items like toilet rolls, washing up liquid, matches, foil and other household bits and pieces so I don’t have to worry about them just before Christmas when I have other things on my mind; and really I just want to focus on the absorbing the lovely array of Christmas goodies in the shops rather than the necessities.
My initial preparations for Christmas always begin with an inspiration notebook – clippings from magazines, ideas from pinterest and I keep a note of any local events we might go to.
I have booked the hairdresser, a visit to Santa (with grandchildren of course) and the pantomime, scheduled every known appointment, event, birthdays and inset days on my calendar and moved unecessary appointments into January and have made a note of the last posting dates.
I check in last year’s notebook for the page that tells me what didn’t work last year to avoid the same mistakes this year. I always try and persuade DH that leaving the outdoor lights until ‘later’ is not a good idea as often the weather can be quite bad, making it an unecessary battle with the elements whilst balancing on a pair of steps and putting up strings of lights in wet windy weather and then connecting it to the outdoor electric socket. I also make it a rule never to decorate or paint beyond October and not to make appointments, like the dentist, if it can wait until January. These kind of things eat up time during the last few weeks running up to Christmas.
Each year I like to plan to do something a little different. Something that is festive and allows us to take time out for a day or two. This year I booked the linocutting workshop (the results you will see in another post), and I am hoping to visit Mrs Gaskell’s house in Manchester where they are doing readings from Christmas poems and stories.
Once my cards are made or bought I keep a decorated Christmas box to put them in together with the list of people who I send them to and an updated address list and stamps. I can then write my cards in any free moments or whilst watching the TV. Updating the addresses is something I must do before I can print the labels. Finish making the cards is even more critical!
I like to assign a space for presents. If they end up scattered around the house I am likely to a) forget them or b) the grandchildren might happen upon them. I usually clear a shelf high up in my wardrobe where little eyes cannot see.
So that is me more or less prepared for getting through the next 24 days. I hope you will join me for my daily creating Christmas posts starting tomorrow. I will try to document my Christmas task of the day each day as I create our joyful Christmas – although I fully expect this might not go quite to plan!
I am gradually easing myself into this new season – a time to slow down and reflect.
For me it is a new season in my life too, no escaping anymore up to our little cottage in Scotland and spending hours working in the garden, but rejuvinating at the same time. It is just a year since we said goodbye and I am just starting to get a hold on my new normal, implementing a few changes here and there.
You might think as I did that we would have more time on our hands to do other things, but sadly…. no, this hasn’t turned out to be the case. With both daughters moving house one after the other we have been providing help with unpacking, sorting, decorating, gardening and childcare and my dear old mum has certainly entered a new chapter in her life.
Her short term memory is increasingly short term and living with the constant phone calls she makes to me through the day asking me the same question over and over ‘Do I know when the carers are coming in’ is frustrating but I need to keep patient and remember how frightening this condition is for her and how important routine and stability are to manage this condition. I know it will only get worse so I have to get better at handling the situation for my own sanity.
The carers are finding it hard to cope with her too so I know it is not just me feeling frustrated. Being almost 100 and still able to reside in your own home is such an achievement but also such a challenge. My family all agree that going inton a care home might not be that far away but at present she has almost 4 hours of undivided attention from the carers during the day – there is no way she will get that in a care home. During her brief spell in one 2 years ago she was lucky to have 5 minutes attendance from the overworked carers looking after her and she went downhill through lack of contact. I know from comments I receive that I am not alone in this situation and it helps to know that, it really does.
As any change can be difficult I am going slowly with the season and trying a bit of self care, carving out some time to do something just for me each week and alongside this I have a new determination to resolve some of the ongoing projects that are in limbo and constantly on my mind as no matter which way I turn I see unfinished jobs all around me.
I decided to sort my rather long project list into something more manageable, breaking down the more lengthy and involved projects into attainable tasks. I have now grouped these into short lists of three and I aim to complete the three over a week – Kanban style.
This week my 3 projects are:
Book a fully refundable hotel room for Christmas at the Premier Inn close to mum’s apartment.
Return a roller blind to John Lewis and buy a wider one, also buy a second pillowslip and a tester pot of the Little Greene paint.
Finally sew a casing on the edge of the greenhouse shading net so I can get it off the mending pile and pack it away ready for next year. (This task should have been done at the start of summer, but like most of my tasks got deferred).
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At the same time I am gearing up a notch to prepare myself for the next big event looming on the horizon ocassionally flicking through pages of magazines finding inspiration for making a few Christmas crafts and hoping at the same time that I will find the time to do them. I have found from experience that starting early is key to avoiding the almost unavoidable pressure that can be generated these days – gone are the days when Christmas could be organised the week or two before; I have learnt that even the simplest of Christmasses require a lot of planning to make them seem…..well simple.
Instead, I switched to buying the seasonal issues of Country Living – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Christmas as quite often the features in these are pulled from past issues. I do tend to keep these seasonal issues to refer to each year and actually find them more inspiring than their monthly magazines – although I did sign up for the offer of 5 issues for £5 in August as £1 an issue is too good to miss and it will include the December issue.
A lovely little magazine for easy recipes and ideas for using up leftovers is the free Tesco magazine which my daughter passes on to me. Ironically, all these magazines are piling up now waiting to be read.
To add to my growing little stash two welcome packages arrived this week – I ordered the final issue of 91 magazine a while ago; I do admire these people who manage to self publish their own individual magazines and sadly, although I didn’t buy many copies, I will miss this one.
The other package was the 6 monthly little pamphlet produced by Persephone books that keeps you updated with details of any new titles and excerpts from some of their books in print, it came with the little red Victory postcard too, presumably a wartime slogan.
I have a passion for the Persephone books – I am working my way through many of them and there is something very appealing about their plain smooth grey covers opening up to those glorious prints hidden away inside.
I am patiently waiting for Christmas now when I know DH will ‘surprise’ me with a couple of new Persephone books to read…… meanwhile, I content myself with rereading one or two old favourites from my bookshelves.Â
The one by my bedside that I currently fall asleep with after a chapter or two is The Fortnight in September by R C Sherriff,  a day by day account of a family’s two week holiday repeated every year in Bognor – a very typical British seaside holiday and very reminiscent of our own family holiday in Scarborough. It has a nice leisurely pace very conducive for sleep and a glimpse into the ordinariness of their everyday lives.
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I had a bit of an unintentional spending session last Saturday – I say session, rather than spree, as I spent more than I thought but not more than was affordable. After going to Mount Grace Priory we called in nearby Northallerton and I took Little L and Sweetie to The Works to treat them to one or two craft items to keep them busy in half term.
I chose the pack of spooky balloons to decorate along with the make your own pumpkin paper lantern and then let the girls have a free choice of something they would like to do – and what a mistake that was…I should have known better – whilst the display had some lovely laser cut wooden lanterns to paint or strings of bunting to colour….what did they choose….the most gruesome and hideous plaster figurines to paint that came at a gruesome price!
Let that be a lesson to myself not to take them with me to buy Halloween crafts.
I consoled myself with a few cute little Christmas bits that I have no doubt I or the children will create something Christmassy with.
Taking a short cut through the Yorkshire Trading Company I noticed this twiggy wreath at a very reasonable price. All I need now is the time to develop all the ideas I have floating around in my head.
But it won’t be today as DH and I will be out and about taking garden rubbish from my daughter’s garden to the tip and then another go at that bathroom.
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