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Feeling Christmassy!
Dec. 16th, 2007 10:30 pmToday I made John and Charles clear out the dining room and take a lot of stuff to the tip. They also went to get the Christmas tree, but we haven't put it up yet. We'll do that tomorrow, maybe, if we have time.
I made the almond paste and covered the cake this afternoon. I've left it to dry out in the dining room, so the cats are banned from there again. They'd only been allowed back in for three hours or so, but Morgan managed to upset the pot pourri all over the floor and it's a miracle the container wasn't broken.
I shan't ice the cake till Saturday because we don't like hard icing. I wanted to make one with a big almond paste poinsettia on top, but I seem to have lost all my food dyes. I don't know if I can face Morrison's again. John and I went yesterday and it was absolutely horrid. Thank God for my Blue Badge or we would have had to leave and go back another day. I'm hoping I shan't have to do any other shopping except for getting the beef from Costco and the vegetables from Justin in Hexham. Oh! I've just remembered that Charles and I are going to Grainger Market in Newcastle on Friday for the gammon and pease pudding.
John and I did the Christmas cards this evening and we'll post them tomorrow on our way out. There are fewer and fewer cards to do each year. This year two couples have died and my cousin's wife has died. It's very sobering.
Tomorrow is Charles' 32nd. birthday; (God, that makes me feel soooo old!) and John is taking us all to the tapas bar in the Metrocentre for lunch, so we shall do a little last-minute present shopping. I forgot to telephone and ask to hire an electric wheelchair. I do hope they have one available, otherwise it will mean stumbling from one bench to the next.
I need to get a few more small things for Charles for Christmas and maybe a couple of things for John. We've decided not to spend a lot this year as we're so broke, but John and I have clubbed together to get Charles a cheap digital camera because he's actually going to attend a course in the New Year! Unbelievable! He does seem so much better lately, though. This evening he was making silly jokes about his birthday, which is wonderful because he usually doesn't even want to acknowledge it. I even heard him singing in the shower earlier!
The camera I've chosen is incredibly cheap from Amazon, but it has far more pixels than my own expensive Olympus which seems almost obsolete now that it's four years old. I had terrible trouble recently finding somewhere to buy a 512 Mb card for it. All the newer cameras use 2Gb cards, but mine won't take more than 512 Mb.
Charles' camera is really tiny but still has millions of pixels more than mine and a good zoom. The customer ratings for it were really good. I just wish it would be delivered soon. The camera card, which came from an associate company to Amazon arrived days ago and the camera itself is alleged to be on its way. I bet it comes tomorrow while we're all out!
I'm looking at my Christmas timetable and I'm only one task behind so far. Sadly it's rather a large one. Since the dining room has been out of commission for so long, all the ornaments on the dresser need washing, but so far there are a lot of gaps in the schedule to take up the slack. In any case, as it's only the three of us for Christmas, it really won't matter if everything isn't perfect, just as long as we all enjoy it.
Fortunately I managed to get a hair appointment for Wednesday, which is rather good because it's the day before I'm going out for Christmas lunch with Caroline and her staff. I don't know exactly where we're going apart from the fact that it's close to the office and is a new Italian restaurant. I don't suppose it will be as wonderful as last year when we went to the Tree House in Alnwick Gardens, but it did make an awful lot of driving for a couple of people and I love Italian food, anyway.
I'm getting rather Christmassy and excited now!
I made the almond paste and covered the cake this afternoon. I've left it to dry out in the dining room, so the cats are banned from there again. They'd only been allowed back in for three hours or so, but Morgan managed to upset the pot pourri all over the floor and it's a miracle the container wasn't broken.
I shan't ice the cake till Saturday because we don't like hard icing. I wanted to make one with a big almond paste poinsettia on top, but I seem to have lost all my food dyes. I don't know if I can face Morrison's again. John and I went yesterday and it was absolutely horrid. Thank God for my Blue Badge or we would have had to leave and go back another day. I'm hoping I shan't have to do any other shopping except for getting the beef from Costco and the vegetables from Justin in Hexham. Oh! I've just remembered that Charles and I are going to Grainger Market in Newcastle on Friday for the gammon and pease pudding.
John and I did the Christmas cards this evening and we'll post them tomorrow on our way out. There are fewer and fewer cards to do each year. This year two couples have died and my cousin's wife has died. It's very sobering.
Tomorrow is Charles' 32nd. birthday; (God, that makes me feel soooo old!) and John is taking us all to the tapas bar in the Metrocentre for lunch, so we shall do a little last-minute present shopping. I forgot to telephone and ask to hire an electric wheelchair. I do hope they have one available, otherwise it will mean stumbling from one bench to the next.
I need to get a few more small things for Charles for Christmas and maybe a couple of things for John. We've decided not to spend a lot this year as we're so broke, but John and I have clubbed together to get Charles a cheap digital camera because he's actually going to attend a course in the New Year! Unbelievable! He does seem so much better lately, though. This evening he was making silly jokes about his birthday, which is wonderful because he usually doesn't even want to acknowledge it. I even heard him singing in the shower earlier!
The camera I've chosen is incredibly cheap from Amazon, but it has far more pixels than my own expensive Olympus which seems almost obsolete now that it's four years old. I had terrible trouble recently finding somewhere to buy a 512 Mb card for it. All the newer cameras use 2Gb cards, but mine won't take more than 512 Mb.
Charles' camera is really tiny but still has millions of pixels more than mine and a good zoom. The customer ratings for it were really good. I just wish it would be delivered soon. The camera card, which came from an associate company to Amazon arrived days ago and the camera itself is alleged to be on its way. I bet it comes tomorrow while we're all out!
I'm looking at my Christmas timetable and I'm only one task behind so far. Sadly it's rather a large one. Since the dining room has been out of commission for so long, all the ornaments on the dresser need washing, but so far there are a lot of gaps in the schedule to take up the slack. In any case, as it's only the three of us for Christmas, it really won't matter if everything isn't perfect, just as long as we all enjoy it.
Fortunately I managed to get a hair appointment for Wednesday, which is rather good because it's the day before I'm going out for Christmas lunch with Caroline and her staff. I don't know exactly where we're going apart from the fact that it's close to the office and is a new Italian restaurant. I don't suppose it will be as wonderful as last year when we went to the Tree House in Alnwick Gardens, but it did make an awful lot of driving for a couple of people and I love Italian food, anyway.
I'm getting rather Christmassy and excited now!
