Sneaking Christmas in early...

I love Christmas.  Love it.  But the minute Christmas Day is done?  I've had enough of it, and I want my house back to normal.  Sod tradition, I'm not superstitious.  The thought of leaving my decorations up until January makes me feel ill.  It's a new year?  Therefore, I tend to put my decorations up early, so I get the benefit of them!  The tree normally goes up the last Sunday in November, so I'll have to dig out the decorations this week some time.  We do have the snowy tree permanently in our hallway, so as we've picked up little tree decorations over the last few weeks, we've put them straight onto the tree, so it's already done.  It looks really pretty, especially at night when it's lit up.

We've had my friend Helen's peg dolly tree decoration in more than enough time, so that also is taking pride of place on the tree...

It's Stir up Sunday tomorrow and later this evening I'm going to make sure that all my fruit is firmly soaked in cider and  fruit juices.  My lesson was learned on my first Stir up Sunday many years ago now, where I didn't read the recipe beforehand, and didn't prep the fruit.  That year I had Stir up Monday ;-)  And then, as if I didn't have enough to do, Mr G says...

Mr G: I can't wait for a slice of that Christmas Cake.
Me: Which Christmas Cake?
Mr G: Yours, of course?

Looks like this year, I'm making Christmas Cake too...

This is what my kitchen looks like.  I hope nobody is expecting me to make a Sunday Roast tomorrow, because this is tame compared to the bedlam that it will be tomorrow.

So on Monday I will post my Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake (with chocolate!) recipes :-)

Our car is in the garage, still... Mr G is going stir crazy, he's not left the house since last Sunday.  His CT scan has been rearranged for Monday so at least he'll get a bit of fresh air there.  I've done a bit more online shopping this morning, so I feel more relieved today than I did this time yesterday, all the 'big' presents for the children are now sorted.  I've saved through the year with our local meat wholesaler so I have enough money to get my Christmas Turkey and Gammon or Ham, Sausages and Bacon, I'll can pop there with my parents the next time that they go shopping there, and stick everything in the freezer.  So at the very least, everyone will have a main present and some Turkey on Christmas Day!  Everything always comes together in the end, doesn't it?