Merry and Bright

The days leading up to Christmas are not exactly stressful, because I adore this time of year, but full of busyness, making sure that all the jobs are done and all the loose ends come together at the right time and in the right order so that Christmas Day (and the following 12) are calm and restful.  With help from H, who crucially managed to find somewhere else in the house on which to balance the partially completed jigsaw that has been dogging our dinner times for the last few months, freeing up that end of the table to be loaded with roasted edibles, we had a wonderful Christmas, and today we spent the day curled up like well fed house cats with a saucer of cream; warm and cozy from head to toe.


Kitty mastered the art of unwrapping presents fairly quickly, demonstrating a determined insistence for removing every last scrap of paper and throwing it over her shoulder before turning her attention to the goodies inside.  As is only fitting for our only daughter she has been spoiled rotten at every turn, and a happier little girl you'd be hard to find.

(unwrapping and playing with her present from Auntie Zee and Uncle D)

My highlight of the day was watching her unwrap her Mama-made quilt (pictures to follow if it ever stops raining); she took all the paper off, hugged it, spread it out around her, lay on her back, kicked her feet and giggled, and then wrapped herself up in it.  Clearly someone (Daddy?) has been teaching her the proper way to respond to handmade (it's also a cute quilt if I say so myself).

I'll be doing some more detailed posts on some of the Christmas crafting over the next few days but for today I leave you with some snippets of our day:

Scrambled eggs for breakfast

reading That's Not My Snowman with Daddy (and yes, in the background is a metre of Jaffa Cakes, from Kitty to Daddy)


Talking to Grannie and Grandpa in Devon

It's for you! - chatting to Gran and Grandad in Yorkshire.


A trip to the playground in between rain showers this afternoon.