People who know me well, will know how much I love Christmas - I have a collection of Christmas jumpers, shirts and t-shirts; and enough earrings to wear different ones every weekday of December. I love Christmas songs, and movies and the food is one of the best elements of Christmas for me.
I love a cosy Christmas scene for the decoration mood but while I know what I like and how I want it all to look, I am not the most skilled in producing the image in my mind's eye.. This year, it feels like a more important Christmas - my Mum is coming to stay with us, and it is our first time spending Christmas day here - last year, we went to my in-laws for a lovely, quiet Christmas. This year is likely to be as quiet, but perhaps a little busier - being the hosts.
Due to my self-appointed feeling that this year needs to be special, I enlisted my good friend @LJRobinsonwrites to help me in bringing my vision to light.
We planned a full schedule for late November, organising a mood board evening, during which Laura came over and we pulled our ideas together to create the board:
NB: Laura created the board, I untangled and re-batteried the Christmas lights.
The mood board evening (complete with festive music, and hot chocolate supplied by Mr W) was followed by a shopping trip to a Christmas market and a couple of other shops, in order to source additional decorations to supplement what we already had. In previous years, our decorations have comprised of a tree, some candles, and a few strings of lights. My vision required a little more - so we needed to get items to build a swag, sticky hooks to get everything up, and a few other bits and pieces.
A wreath had already been acquired - two actually - as we purchased one and then I was gifted a beautiful handmade one by one of my pupils :).
So we have a front door wreath and a cupboard door wreath.
Laura also helped me filter through our decorations to select the best ones for the tree, and work out which ones wouldn't fit the aesthetic, we felt that perhaps the Christmas zombies aren't quite on theme for this year. I also picked out which bits would be put up in the guest room, and which will be hung on the Christmas card string.
After our shopping trip, we had arranged the first Sunday in December for decorating - I am feeling super festive and need that happy feeling to last the whole month - Mr W and I bought the tree the day before, then Laura came over again, ready to develop an idea into a reality.
We spent a lovely afternoon decorating the tree and hanging festive bunting, arranging candles and other decorations.
Mr W was designated the job of outdoor lights; it took him a little longer due to needing to find a remote, but we do now have the lights for the outdoors strung up and will be sorting out lights for our conservatory (the dining area) soon.
I have no further pictures to share, for two reasons - 1. I am not sure my photography would do the decorating justice, and 2. On the off chance that my Mum is a reader, I don't want to spoil the surprise.
So, photos - if I manage to capture any decent ones - will follow in the new year. All that is left for me to say now, is that with the business of the season and the recognition that I won't be doing any posting for the rest of December, I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. See you all in 2025!
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