This weekend has been all about getting as many things done from my current to do list as possible. The main item being putting up the Christmas decorations.
It's never a case of just putting up the decorations, as the living room always needs cleaning and hoovering beforehand and then again afterwards, as there are always bits and pieces that drop from the tree when you're putting it up, even if it's artificial like ours.
We've not had a real tree for several years now, but I'm starting to miss having one. I think the problem is that the artificial tree we have is very traditional, and basically just looks a bit boring.
It didn't help this year as I went for a traditional red and green theme. In the end I had to add a few brighter coloured baubles to give it a bit of a lift. Maybe it's time to start re-thinking the tree thing and look at alternatives.
Next year, we should have a bigger kitchen by Christmas, as we are hopefully going ahead with our kitchen extension in the second half of the year. I can see us possibly wanting to put a tree in this part of the house in future or maybe even decorate one outside that will be visible from the kitchen, instead of having one inside. It's something to think about.
Alternatively we could get a new brightly coloured artificial tree or simply new decorations might be the answer. I can feel a change coming on one way or another.
So the tree and our familiar decorations are up and Christmas has officially begun in our household. It's quite a relief actually, as it feels like a big task has finally been completed. I still have all of my gift wrapping to do and a little bit more shopping for a couple of people, but essentially it is mostly taken care of.
I bought a few more Christmas food items in my Lidl shop this morning, which is why the bill came to over £70. I don't have much more shopping to do now this week, as I got most of what we needed. As I don't have any vouchers left to use at Tesco I could do most of the shop at Lidl this week. There were a few bits I couldn't get so will still be heading to Tesco as usual tomorrow, and then stopping in at TK Maxx to see if I can get the last few gifts I need to buy.
Tomorrow evening is the Christmas dinner for staff at the shop, so I'll be heading there when the shop closes, to meet every one and head out to the restaurant. It should be a nice evening.
Another job I've been doing this weekend has been making up and packing items I have sold on eBay as part of my small business. I haven't really mentioned much about eBay recently. The main reason for this is that this year I haven't really been on it and haven't sold half as much as I did last year. Initially, I listed things differently and they didn't get seen, but the main reason I think has been the fact that I changed a few things about my listings and it didn't really work as well in terms of sales. It's been a learning curve.
To be honest, I also got off to a slow start due to everything that was going on in October and it took me until November to get my act together, which is pretty late when trying to capture Christmas-related sales. Things have picked up a bit in the last couple of weeks, but to be honest I'm not too bothered as I've been very busy at the shop and life moves on sometimes and different things become important.
I will, off course, miss the extra money that I earned last year and which paid for most of my dental treatment if you remember, but so long as I cover costs and make a little bit of money, I'm happy. I can always try again next year, although the disruption of having building work done, might put paid to that idea. Maybe it's time to get a job outside of the house and earn some money that way again.
Other things I've been working on this weekend include; cooking up some homemade food for the dog, the usual ironing/laundry workload, personal and business banking and generally pottering and doing other small household things that needed doing. I've not managed to do everything on my list, but should hopefully find a bit more time to do some of them tomorrow before I go out.
How was your weekend?
We chose our tree yesterday - always have a real one. Jess decided we needed new lights & drove up to the garden centre to buy some. I had to go out for a couple of hours and when I got in the tree was looking so pretty. We've bought new pretty glass baubles over the past few years and have a stripped back, grown up tree. I put out the rest of our decorations. I always greet them like old friends !
ReplyDeleteStill getting the final bits of Christmas candy making and baking completed. Should be totally done by the end of this week (unless I make some more cookies, which could be very likely with both sons coming home to eat them).
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have gone with a red and silver theme on the tree. As well as all the ornaments we brought back as souvenirs from our trips (some of which are not red or silver) and the angels from our boys, sometimes it seems as if I never change, and yet everything does change slightly each year. This year we have fewer glass ornaments on the tree, and hopefully next year we will have two trees.... Means more ornaments!!
God bless.