Getting My S--- Together

It's Thursday, and it's my day off.  I have one more day to work before Christmas - tomorrow, and then we head off to Yorkshire on Saturday.  As a consequence, today I'm trying to get my s--- together. I did a bit of laundry and ironing at the beginning of the week, but there's much more to do, before I can be sure that everything that we might need to take with us is available.

Today, I've cleared the kitchen table of several weeks worth of accumulated c---.  (Excuse my terrible language in this post). I've pinned up the Christmas cards that have been sat around the kitchen worktops for weeks. (My faithful old wreath finally went on the front door this week, thanks to OH.  It will be coming down before we leave, so was hardly worth it, but there you go.)

I've put a basket of ironed clothes away, taken a load of dry washing off the dryer and done a load or two of washing and hung them out. I've started to pack the clothes I'm taking with me and put aside a few other things that I want to read or work on whilst I'm away. 

I will be tackling what's left in the ironing basket, in order to complete the clothes packing, after I've done some personal banking and completed six month's worth of shredding. (I don't like to go away without doing it).

The recurring theme this Christmas has been hampers. One arrived a couple of days ago from a work associate of OH.  It was a nice surprise and made him feel appreciated.  I'd just finished the last mince pie today, when another arrived.  We've not yet opened it properly. We know that OH's mum has made us a hamper to take to the cottage we're renting in Yorkshire over Xmas, because she wants us to drop in for it on the way and I have a feeling that the cottage owners themselves will have left us a bit of a hamper when we get there, as they did last time we stayed in one of their cottages and it wasn't even Christmas.

Why did I bother to buy the things I did to take with us? Crazy, I should have known better.  I'm not complaining, just making an observation.  It's very nice to receive all of these consumable gifts.  At least I won't be desperately trying to find a use or cupboard space for them in a couple of weeks time.

Tonight, I'll be ironing, packing, wrapping, cooking supper, having a bath and pampering myself a bit and just generally mentally preparing myself for my final day at work this year.  It's been a crazy busy week and a crazy busy last six months.  I can't believe so many people are still doing or just starting their Christmas shopping. It never ceases to amaze me when I meet the last minute shoppers in our shop, and I'm sure there's many more to come in yet.

I've got a couple of presents left to wrap, but I should be able to do that in five minutes flat.  LB did all of her own and all of OH's wrapping for him yesterday, when she finished school for Christmas.  Bless her. I'm dreading trying to squeeze them all in the car for the journey.  I've decided that some of our bigger gifts are staying here over Christmas, as there's no point taking them all the way and then bringing them back again.  They aren't really expensive ones, but just bulky ones, so we're going to open them on Friday night when I get back from work, as a pre-Christmas treat. We'll still have plenty to open on Xmas Day.

I'll try and post again before Christmas day, but if I don't manage it -


HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A FABULOUS NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.