Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful...........

Any of you who have been visiting my blog for the last couple of years will know that we are fast approaching my favourite time of the year.... yes, Christmas is just around the corner! I love making our home a warm and inviting place in which to welcome our guests, all the hard work (yes, I even enjoy that too) which goes into getting the house ready to put up the decorations and then sitting back and enjoying everything associated with the festive season.

Christmassy mugs full of steaming hot chocolate, the smell of fresh baking emanating from the kitchen and dried fruits soaking in alcohol for the Christmas cake and pudding, making a wreath of fresh winter greenery to hang on the front door, lighting fragranced candles throughout the house as soon as the light of day starts to fade..... there are so many family traditions and little pleasures that make this time of the year such a delight.

The weather is also adding to the feeling that Christmas is almost here. We had our first snowfall last night and it took me two hours and twenty minutes to get to work this morning! Mmm, I suppose there is a down side to this time of the year. The ridiculous thing is that the worst of the weather is across Teesside and around Darlington. Barnard Castle is just about clear and has only a light dusting of snow and all the roads are clear, crazy or what? I've just put our German Shepherd dog Diesel out for his last garden visit of the evening and it's snowing hard again.... I love it really, just not when I have that 60 mile round trip drive to do.

Tomorrow we will be making a start on assembling the big tree that goes in the lounge. It's a pre-lit tree and it takes some time to check everything through as it goes together and then the best part of a week to get it all decorated and finished ready to switch on in December. I am going to record our progress here on the blog. I don't know how much time I will have for any crafting but whatever I do make, I will share here. I certainly have some big intentions for hand made gifts to give to special friends and I'm going to make every effort to get them done this year. I usually end up running out of time and dashing to the shops at the last minute but I mean for this year to be different.

I hope you love Christmas as much as I do otherwise you're going to have to give my blog a miss for some time. Don't stay away for too long though, I will miss you and as they say in TV speak, normal service will be resumed in January.

We also have a busy time coming up at work next week getting ready for our Graphicus Christmas Open Days on the 03rd and 04th of December. There's another tree to put up and decorate, deliveries of exciting crafting goodies arriving from the USA that all have to be booked in and got ready for the event, demo's to be prepared.... oooo I can't wait. I do hope you are going to be able to join us on at least one of the days, we really are looking forward to letting our hair down and having some fun at this very special event. I'll try to let you in on more of the goings on next week as the preparations get into full swing.

Now it's time to close the lid on my lap top and climb into bed, only problem is..... I'm so excited about everything, how on earth am I going to sleep???????

Happy Christmassy Crafting to all and to all a Good Night!