Getting ready..

I made two Christmas cakes some months ago. Haven't thought about icing or anything before now, but as one of them is for my beloved parents, I think I need to. I'm a tiny bit afraid that I'll have put them away somewhere too safe and won't remember where, to be honest. I have to do this. If they are even vaguely within eyesight, they are eaten. There have been many Christmases without a whole or indeed, any, cake in this house. We cannot resist fruit cake!

A gift to me from Sandra, who comes to my card workshops. Isn't it fabulous. We're badgering her for a workshop now...

 Every time the oven is on, I make a dozen mince pies. Don't judge me, I often use pre-made pastry. I ALWAYS use ready made puff pastry. I don't favour them, but Mr Dunnit does, so I make flaky and shortcrust alternately. I roll the pastry till its really quite thin. I use a small amount of Icing sugar instead of flour for dusting the rolling board. We like it. So far since Thursday, I've made four dozen. The first lot went straight into the bin. I let them burn. Oddly enough, I was at my desk and utterly distracted until it was too late. 'I thought I could smell burning' was the infuriating and unhelpful comment. Never mind. The others are fine. And believe me, there aren't 3 dozen of them now.

Floristry is Sandra's thing, craft is her hobby. Talk about a brilliant combiation!

The Christmas bedding is ready. We're currently sleeping like children with visions of candy canes and toys under some very everyday bedlinen. That will change on Sunday. I'd really like a Christmas comforter too, but storage is a problem for something we'd only use for one month out of twelve. Unless I ever find one in a sale, then I can find room somewhere, of course!

Beautiful detail. Special. You will see it in my house for decades of Christmasses.

The tree will be placed and decorated at some stage today. Really. It looks forlorn at the moment; we released it from the net and had to give it a day to relax into whatever shape it was going to have, and slightly acclimatise. And then we were lazy/busy, so we gave it another day. And today is definitely the day because it's in the way where it is, as is the box of decorations and well, you know, possibly straining my Christmas cheer.

Not much else is ready. I find that I still have gifts to wrap. Yawn. It will happen - I'll be in the mood at some stage between now and the big day, I'm sure. I am starting to feel quite festive though. Or is that just hysteria? I don't know yet. Good thing.