Evening! Hope none of you have been affected by the wild weather and flooding in N. England/Scotland atm.
Function wasn't too bad yesterday after all once we were there, although dh and I felt very old indeed ... house-warming party full of young just-starting-out couples! Also visited countryside briefly which was lovely. And did some chocolate shopping for parcels [exhausting work but someone has to do it 
]
Ta da:
dug out presents and wrapped (until early hrs) for 'St Nicolas' to leave in fireplace which took longer than necessary because I had completely forgotten what things I had acquired for dd over the year
arranged parcels in fireplace along with carrots, water, glass of sherry, biscuits, satsumas, choc etc
re-arranged furniture in sitting room,
made obligatory hoof prints on parquet with icing sugar with the aid of an old horse shoe
dd present opening session
animals
church
sorted a few little presents for friend's dcs down the road
cooked breakfast - full works
played new board game
hung up two loads of washing to dry
washed: school uniform, gym kit, ballet kit
[dh did all the dog-walking today thank heavens as he will be travelling again next week [sigh] ]
helped dd with exam revision
very guiltily avoided telephone calls from competing relatives who both wanted to talk to dh and me (separately) about Christmas 
cooked and served easy one pot roast chicken for dinner with root veg, rice and shredded cabbage and a ton of roasted garlic to keep us all healthy (hopefully)
made pear upside down cake
fed animals again, washed bowls, filled water bowls etc
cleared up and dw, wm and td on timers for the morning
Strictly
Doesn't sound much but baking took ages: kitchen has virtually no storage so downstairs to basement for cake tins, rummaging in box in a different room for food processor, rummaging wearily through stacked plastic boxes for ingreds. Faddling around trying to find vanilla sugar in semi-gloom. All for a cake that should have taken 30 mins tops to prep. The lack of a proper kitchen is beginning to get really, really wearing. Had a bit of a bleat at dh who hid behind his Sunday paper and said ... as usual ... nothing in reply 
House was in relative good order on Friday and now it is a pit again [sigh]. But this is because I have an unprecedented amount of clutter floating around at the moment which needs getting rid of or carrying upstairs to the roof until I can get rid of it. Don't seem to have the energy but needs must ...again ... more pointless moving of clutter from one location to another due to lack of storage or inadequate storage.
And dd is just at school for exams this week and home the rest of the time. Dh travelling again. Virtually no time by myself to crack on but will just have to make the best of it.
Mon and Tues = operation parcel!!
On the positive front: dd voluntarily took herself off to have a bath and hair-wash this afternoon 
This is the first time this has happened in 12 yrs [cue sound of celebratory bugles!] 
Sorry that was all humungously boring as usual ... .
How has everyone else been getting on?
Very impressed that you have shopped and wrapped Nicknacks! Hope your dh feels better soon. Congrats re: decluttering.
And very impressed that you have finished writing your cards Can't (haven't started mine yet!)
Fuzz glad you had some family fun today!
Blue good to hear you are settling in to your local area
Knitting you are nearly there with links! Sorry, should have mentioned that you need to cut and paste line of (link identifying) text ie Internet address, that appears at top of computer screen, just below tabs, that does indeed usually start with "www" or "https" and you then surround that identifying "address" in double square brackets at either end of link if that makes sense!
Hope everyone is surviving the accelerated pace of pre-Christmas prep!