Me? Stressed? Oh Yes Indeedy!

First off, my apologies for not being as prompt at my blogging as I once was.  Truth be told, I am facing a MAJOR deadline at the end of the month, threatening my enjoyment of Christmas and generally trashing my festive spirit.

Husband and I are off on a cruise next week for an injection of much needed relaxation and a sprinkling of Christmas magic, but the sad fact is that the prospect of being away for a week is just increasing my sky-high stress levels even further!

So.....in a nutshell........not much blogging from me this month.  Any spare time I find myself with will be focused on gift buying, gift wrapping, gift buying and a little bit more gift wrapping.  I am a teensy bit behind schedule festively speaking!

I may blog a bit on the cruise - depending in wifi connection and alcoholic consumption (and not necessarily in that order!) - but the idea of a week away from modern life is so appealing that I may even leave my laptop behind as well!

We shall see.

For now, dear blog friends, I will simply wish you a happy December, an enjoyable festive build up to the big day and the promise that I will be back once the fog has lifted and I am back to full strength.  xxx

89 Days until Christmas….already!



Not quite yet thanks Santa!



The nights are starting to draw in and the temperature is falling. Trees are losing their leaves in the brisk winds and the garden is losing its colour.

All of this can only mean one thing……it is autumn here in the UK. And that in turn leads to the next great mental leap – it’s almost Christmas again!

Now is it me, or has 2010 whizzed past at speed? It only feels like yesterday that I was packing away the Christmas decorations and finishing off the turkey and cake!

We haven’t had much of a summer here, and I suppose that will add to the feeling of discomfort at the approaching darkness of winter but heck, can we really be staring October in the face already!

At our local supermarket, Christmas foods have started to appear on the shelves and you just know that on the click of midnight on 1st October, all of the hideously irritating Christmas songs will start playing in every shop you venture into.


By the time Christmas actually gets here, I am invariably fed up with the whole thing – simply because it is a three month event here! Where’s the novelty in that?!

Aaaah....That's better!

I try and leave my Christmas shopping until late November so that I can try and muster some festive spirit nearer the time, but it gets harder and harder to leave it even that late, when the Christmas sales start in October!

Don’t get me wrong, I am no scrooge – far from it – I love Christmas day…..but that’s the point…..Christmas day. Not Christmas month or Christmas Quarter…..Christmas Day.

And so I will brace myself for the onslaught and brave the endless renditions of “White Christmas”, and cross my fingers that I can make it all the way to 24th December with a fragment of festive spirit for the big day itself.

In the meantime, I will enjoy crunching through the fallen leaves as I walk, and cosying up with my husband in the dark evenings ahead. After all, that is what autumn should really be about isn’t it?