Christmas 1

Today (24-11-12) in my house is Christmas dinner day.

The reason it is a month earlier than the traditional 25-12 date is because of Tesco.
Tesco brought out their Christmas products in late August. They usually bring them out in late September. So, working it out mathematically, Christmas is a month earlier this year than it is normal years.

Prompted by this I am, today, going to talk about Christmas.

I never realised until I moved away from home how like my mother, and consequently her mother, I am. Christmas, when my mother was a child, was the biggest festival in the house. Mum's family are really large and were not particularly well to do (they called their mother mam) but Christmas was saved for all year and caution was thrown to the wind when it came to Nana and Christmas.

Nana decked the house to the nines and had everybody's favourites (which meant it was like cooking five Christmas dinners instead of one). She went all out.
That love of loving people by giving them food on Christmas has passed to mum (who on the first of December this year is doing a Christmas dinner for some of the long servers in the Church, and following that is doing a homeless Christmas dinner [I'm not sure of the date of that one though]) and has now been passed to me.

Last year, in Number 2, I did my first independent of my family (as in the Cowpars and Ryans) Christmas dinner. It was so fun I loved it. 2 Years ago, also in Number 2 I first bought Christmas decorations.

Neither of these can compare with this year. This year I completely redid the Christmas decorations thing decorating not just the sitting room but also the kitchen, hallway and landing. I bought my first tree (5 foot) and decorated it, new hanging decorations and tinsel... I love Christmas (pictures of most of these can be seen on Facebook).

Another big change this year, and the one that makes me really happy, is the table.
We have a colour scheme (blue and silver, red and gold) so the tree is mostly blue and silver with bits of red and a small bit of gold, the hanging decorations are all blue and silver or red and gold and now... so is the table. I bought a red table cloth in Dunnes with a gold runner along it... There is a red and green centerpiece with a gold candle, two red place mats sit on the gold runner and there are gold napkins on the table and in the glasses with gold and red Christmas crackers... Yay.

Ok so long story short, I love planning Christmas stuff... but it means the kitchen has been out of bounds since 2:30 today haha