Surviving Christmas

How much do I love these boots? So much that I am SAVING UP for them (they're not insanely expensive, but they're not cheap). Saving up is a strange concept these days. I didn't have a credit card until my late 20s (funny thing about finishing uni in a recession - no full-time jobs to be had, and back in those days they were much stricter about giving out cards). So before that it really was a matter of saving up for things ... And of course I won't actually be able to wear these boots for another six months because it is Too Darn Hot. So waiting is good.

I told Spouse it can buy me this:

this:

or this:

for Christmas. It politely declined. Apparently it wanted to get me an Hermes cuff, but they don't have the exact one I want in stock (gold with orange enamel). It's the thought that counts. AND I am getting tix to see Madama Butterfly in February, which I'm very excited about.

Christmas is in 10 days. We are hosting 22 people (14 adults, 8 children). Our house is very small, so all festivities will have to take place in the garden (also small, but bigger than any of our rooms). As we've been having insanely bad weather - rain, floods, pestilence - we've taken the cautious step of getting a pop-up marquee. We popped it up for the first time on the weekend and it takes up most of the backyard.

Paving is underway so that there is somewhere to put the buffet table.
Baking has begun. Three batches of shortbread have been despatched. 60 chocolate truffles have been rolled in cocoa. Plans have been made for the building of a gingerbread house, which will probably collapse in the dire humidity. I made caramels (80 of them) for Kid 2's schoolfriends: they looked like this when we'd wrapped them.

I want to live somewhere where I could have eggnog and mulled cider and fondue and enjoy heating up the kitchen with baking. Like New York?

Again, there is controversy around the tree. I begged to be allowed an artificial one - and my wish was granted, but Spouse doesn't like it.

So we got a small living tree as well. Before you know it, I'll be like Martha Stewart and have several Christmas trees in every room of my house ...

In other news, Kid 2 won the school's annual Creativity Award and was so happy it was almost levitating. I managed to miss the ceremony - after eight years of sitting through these terminally boring 'Presentation Days', where every single child in the school gets an award for breathing and there are about six awards with any significance, I bailed on this one. Sod's law, right?