Wet and Windy Festive Countdown

It's nearly 2 weeks to Xmas. The weather was awful. It's cold, wet and windy. But, in keeping with the festive season, I'd a Santa hat on and Xmas songs blaring in the background, put up our tree and hung the tinsels, baubles and wreaths. The cushion covers have been changed and I'll hang the curtains next week. It's red, red, red galore. There's a piece of Xmas in every room on every space. I think I've gone overboard but I guess you need some fun/colour once in a while. Every year, I'll buy one beautiful, expensive bauble to add to the tree. This year, it is a beautiful crystal bell which I bought at the German Xmas market.

The Xmas tree is a reminder of the times when we used to babysit Kevin's nieces and nephew in Llanon. My sister in law would bring them up 2 weeks from Xmas to us so that she could do the Xmas shopping and decorations. We didn't have a Xmas tree and they would question us. Try answering the whys from 4 kids aged 3-10. We bought one and they decorated it for us. Even the guinea pig cages had tinsels. So, I guess we just carried on and boy did I get carried away.

Another reason to celebrate is when Sky Blues defeated West Bromwich Albion 4:2. After such a bad week, that's a good morale booster. Let's hope the takeover will be successful.

I also purchased 2 spaces on a Xmas tree for charity. The Warwick Volunteers Fund-raising Committee are selling spaces on the tree for people to decorate and personalise. I wrote our names on 2 baubles for a good cause. The tree will be up on the Piazza for the festive period.

Then I'd an early Xmas lunch celebration with CC. She won't be attending the staff Xmas dinner because she'll be away until the new year. It was a delicious roast lunch with all the trimmings and Xmas pudding. They must be cutting cost cos there's no crackers which means no silly jokes to laugh about. What a scrounge. CC also gave me a lovely crocheted bauble for my tree. Thanks!!!

Another do for Olli's retirement. The table was groaning with food that we even had it for lunch and tea. They really know how to party. Olli's off to Ireland for good. Au revoir, bon voyage and go steady on the Guinness :-).

Had a meeting with Collections Management. I was very pleased that since the Sivanandan Collection was catalogued and classified, there were more requests from the users. This showed that the Collections was being used. Then GL dropped a bombshell. There's 12 shelves of unprocessed books in the store. What...how did it get there??? I thought I'd only 3 bays left. Even SH was surprised. Can't say much but just plod on as usual.

Although we'd done our Xmas shopping, we made our rounds to the various shopping parks. We wanted to visit our favourite playgrounds, but the weather made it impossible. Anyway, there's always bits and bobs that catches our fancy. The traffic was horrendous and the mall was jam-packed. Yesterday, we checked out Matalan where Kevin got me a lovely, grey woolly top as a Xmas pressie (muchas gracias babe) and 2 memory foam pillows; browsed in Currys and PC World; got a cutting gadget from B&Q and edibles from Morrison. Today, 2 Xyron adhesive cartridges from Hobbycraft, a portable keyboard from Maplins and cranberry sauce from M&S. Spend, spend, spend.

I also want to wish Abah, a very Happy 74th Birthday. Praying for the very best in everything. I just want to say I'm the luckiest daughter in the world to have you as my father.