In preparation for Christmas today I will……

[Beautifulsunflowers]

…….organise the freezer space and get if it stops raining I’ll go into town to WHSmiths to hopefully get the dark chocolate toblerone for ds’s stocking. I’m also going to make a few more Pom poms for my Pom Pom wreath.

Whst are you all doing today in preparation for the big day?

Yesterday I feed my Christmas cake. Today I have chocolate advent calendars and selection boxes arriving with my shopping.

I'm not cooking Christmas Dinner for the first time in 12 years (!) which is fantastic but feeling a little lost about it... And my son who is my only child is getting a Switch this year and not the usual bundle of gifts. So need to try and throw myself into other sides of it

Will start with lists. Lists help everything.

Might try and get to home bargins and start the stocking fillers

Please tell me im not the only one who has to do a 2 day deep clean before the Decs go up. Becuase im gunna have to schedule that in too!

On a more jolly note ive put the Halloween stuff away and got the Christmas crafts box down 😍

Ooo would love to hear more about this!

Making a Christmas cake. I haven't made one for about 20 years as I am the only one that really eats it, but to celebrate giving up my full time job to go (very) part time I'm going to harness my inner Mary Berry.

Not sure if it will last until Christmas though...

I'm tidying out my daughter's room and trying to decide if I have time to redecorate it before she comes home for Christmas.

Probably not, really.

@MissMarplesNiece

Watch a Christmas movie whilst drinking a glass of Baileys !!!
No joking....nothing yet too early for me

I'm going to check my wrapping paper stash today, I might have enough.

I'm also going to order butter for making pastry to come with my food shopping tomorrow so I can get some made this week and in the freezer.

For the first time ever, I'm going to make a Christmas Cake. Not sure if I've left it a bit late? But doing it anyway.

I’m working today- to pay for Xmas 🤣
Tomorrow is my day off and I’m dragging ALL the stashed away gifts and making a spreadsheet. I may wrap and box up some presents if I have enough for one person to keep them together in one box… we don’t have an attic so storage is tricky… can’t keep stuff all together.

The plan was to make lists and browse bargains online to get started on gifts for DH’s family.

Somehow this turned into buying party clothes for me on Vinted that I do not need and don’t have space for.

I did get a lovely heated throw for DAunt thanks to a MNer discount code on the bargains thread.

That cranberry sauce recipe looks amazing!
I didn’t get into town yesterday as the rain didn’t let up but todays looking better so today I’m going shopping to get the toblerones, pick up a parcel I’ve ordered and buy ingredients for the cranberry sauce thank you @MissMarplesNiece

I'm going to get the box of Christmas clothes down from on top of the wardrobe. Wash the dust off them and sort through all the jumpers to see if anything still fits the children.
If they are too small they will be donated to the school for the FOUR Christmas jumper days taking place this year.

Oh I like the sound of that cranberry sauce too! So today’s prep is to add the recipe to my planner for this year’s recipes. We’re having roast beef for the dinner itself but we will buy a turkey or turkey crown to roast especially for sandwiches as it isn’t Christmas without turkey sandwiches!

In other prep today: I will try to make a small dent in the mess in our living room (currently being used as a storage room as the rooms upstairs undergo building/renovations). I want to have everything gone through, de-cluttered, organised, boxed up and moved upstairs so that come December we can have a cosy space ready for Christmas hygge.

I’m aiming for one small section a day so as to avoid overwhelm. Today I will tackle coats/jackets/outerwear and put away the foodie Christmas gifts for family.

Today I took down the autumn/Halloween decorations in order to have a month of calmness and minimalism. I usually make Delia's cranberry relish which I'll make in December and stick in the fridge. No specific Christmas prep today

Off to Home Bargains today for my annual Christmas stocking filler trip. More excited than I should be 😂and going alone for the first time which is also quite exciting.

Make my Christmas cake and possibly mincemeat, or a Christmas pudding as I have suet to use up.

Digging out the recipe for my Christmas cake and pudding to see what I need and remind myself of when I ammeant to make them. Pretty sure I should be on the cake now.

Clean out the fridge. For some reason there seem to be hundreds of forgotten bottles of condiments in there. There's not enough room for actual food, and Christmas Fridge is coming...

Clear the crap out the Christmas treats cupboard really to fill!

Place marking, determined to get really organised this year so the days before Xmas aren't stressful

I'm hoping to get the edible items for the stockings today.

Today’s prep — I’ve got a bunch of other cleaning/decluttering to do which is in process, but as part of doing that I’m going to consolidate some of the things I’ve bought so far and put them all together.

I’ll wrap a couple of books which are presents for friends’ children. Also need to prod DP to book the Panto and a Xmas lights trip this evening before it all sells out.

I’ve also made a decent start on the Christmas cards, so I’ll carry on with that this evening. We’re going to an early fireworks display, so I reckon I can get a few more cards in afterwards when DD has gone to bed. I hate hate hate doing them all at once, and they make me anxious, but I don’t want to stop doing them entirely, as lots of them are to friends who I want to keep in touch with; old family friends of my parents who aren’t online etc. I also always have a really busy time at work in the first half of December. So I find doing them bit by bit during November helps it not become a horrendous chore.

Yesterday I finished most of my final online shopping for my side of the family - just now need to wrap and post some advent things just before the start of December; and in December order some cocktails online for one of my sisters. Getting there!

Found all the presents I've ordered and put away safely and have put the wrapping paper in my eyeline as a reminder to start wrapping next week
It's also DS2 birthday so I hope I can keep going after wrapping that

Today I will book my next shopping delivery and put the braised red cabbage ingredients on it.
Also copy out a new Christmas cake recipe and work out how to veganise it.
Soon the last of DDs presents will arrive and we can split them between birthday and Christmas.