What with Christmas Eve being just one week away, and the arrival of MrNin being ever more imminent, it’s been a flurry of activity here at The Family Home. The kitchen now has cupboards stacked full with the bounty of the first Christmas food shopping trip, Christmas cards now deck every available surface, and a big green Christmas tree now sits in the living room, in front of the window (which happens to block the glow of light from the nearby lamp which is so essential to my craftwork, but I shan’t moan as it’s Christmas). Although the tree was merrily put up at the weekend, it thus far only bears fairy lights as the whole household became distracted by the events of the weekend’s reality TV….not only were we thrown into complete SHOCK when that Lifeless Leon beat Rhydian on The X Factor (a bit like American Idol), but we then had the double whammy of Gethin and Camilla being knocked out of Strictly Come Dancing (the celebrity ballroom dancing show). UGH! I have now lost ALL faith in the tele-voting British public. I mean Leon??? Over Rhydian??? I’m up in arms about this *sucks in cheeks and inhales deeply*, this man OOZES skill and talent compared to that Michael Bublé impersonator who has no sound of his own. I mean take a look at Rhydian…this is supposed to be a TALENT SHOW. He has talent! He has The X-Factor!

Or here he is singing ‘Somewhere‘ from Westside Story. Or ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water‘ or even P!INK’s ‘Get this Party Started‘. And his ‘Phantom of the Opera‘ is positively Broadway-worthy.*dismounts soap box and inhales deeply before counting to ten*

This weekend I also neared the end of my Christmas presents to-do list. The immediate family are all sorted except for my sister Jeeyet’s Japanese boyfriend (but he likes fudge, so that shouldn’t be too hard). I also had a big blitz this morning for the nieces and nephews in the online malls. Yes, I’m now an auntie to three of each, ranging in age from young enough to be a child of my own, to old enough to be my younger sibling. Fortunately most of them had lists of various sorts to guide me, but they’re only useful up to a point: The shopping proved hard when I discovered that virtually every online store had sold out of its entire range of High School Musical-related products. Oh the drama! Thankfully I managed to find something in the end, and it was much helped by a 15% off code for the Disney Store.

The past few days also turned out to be quite a knitting marathon for me. I managed to get a bit of air on Saturday morning at the big tri-weekly open-air jumble sale, but after that, it was knit, knit, knit! I even knitted for 11 hours straight on Sunday but it did the job and I’m now back on target for the couple of days lost to my hand injury. Much to my annoyance though, I’ve actually run out of one of the colours of wool! This is most surprising as I bought exactly the amount suggested in the pattern, and they usually always over-calculate. But I’m going to call into the woolshop tomorrow and wail and plead. The frustrating thing is, I’m just two rows short of this particular colour to finish the entire project, and each skein costs £7.95 So it looks like I might have to part with near to a whole £8 just to knit 75 stitches Mutti said that it happened to her too once, and Rowan sent her another ball. Fingers crossed the Rowan Lady will be in the store tomorrow so I can ask her myself

Anyway, must dash….I have one niece left to shop for, and I’d better get on with it so that I can make the Christmas delivery deadline.

Merry Christmas everyone! May your days be productive as mine in the run up to the festive event!