On the way to stock up with veggies today I stopped at the housewares/DIY/garden/all-sorts-of-bits store on the outside of town. It's a lovely place and often has interesting and pretty things which you did not need and suddenly find you don't want to live without.
This morning the staff were busy having the annual shelf-move-around. I really do not need a single additional decoration but know I will be back next week to see the shelves full of the latest temptation:
In 100 days it will be Christmas Eve and if you haven't bought it / made it / arranged it by then it will be too late.
Assuming you needed to buy / make / arrange it in the first place.
I cannot accurately predict a White Christmas but I can predict a very quiet holiday season at Bag End.
What will you be doing this year?
No plans have been made so far although I have just bought myself the present that my Brother-in-Law will give me - he doesn't know yet!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like advance planning to me ! 🤣 😄
DeleteI've got a few things towards Christmas, my brother will be with us as always, and we will spend the day with daughter, SIL and three little ones, then home to a tidy quiet home.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a ‘proper’ family Christmas.
DeleteNo firm plans. Except to not be sending gifts to most family who were on my gift list. Because last year, we got exactly one gift from family. I am not upset about it, but feel no need to continue what is an expensive endeavor for us old retired folks. Some never even acknowledged our gift. So one less worry for this granny.
ReplyDeleteGood for you - some people would not undertstand your decision but I do. For years I was in a similar position with some folk who were not family, but close. Eventually it dawned on me that it was a one-way street.
DeleteWhy o why do they get the Chrismas stuff on the shelves so early, well I know its because they want to make as much money as they can but it arrives to the detrement of other things being taken off the shelves to make room. Christmas is not my favourite time of year and this year we are all going to my sons where they love to play games, unfortunately I don't so will be taking my crochet along. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
I feel the same as you Briony.
DeleteIt is all done in the name of consumerism and profit-making.
Last year the TV adverts REALLY annoyed me because despite raging inflation and fuel price increases the supermarkets still put out adverts which (to me) implied that if you were not supplying a loaded table with far too much food you were failing your family. No wonder so many folk end up in debt. Grrrrr.
Every year I struggle more and more to be enthused about Chrimbly...I feel like I get the odd Christmas Tingle, as we call it around here, and then it's just box-ticking and getting-through. Which sounds horribly Grinchy of me but, as it's been said, the materialism and commercialism is so rampant and it just wears me right down. I'm predicting a lean and quiet Christmas here, cost-of-living etc etc and we refuse to go into debt so it's belt-tightening all around. Everyone has everything they need anyway :) xo
ReplyDeleteWe're pretty much the same as you - and you do not sound remotely Grinch-like.
DeleteI do so love Christmas, but I really wish shops would hold off on the decorations for a little while longer. Everything seems so hurried these days, and it feels like we're having to be two steps ahead of ourselves all the time.
ReplyDeleteI expect we will be celebrating in our usual understated manner, but this year I'm also hoping for a trip to London to see the Christmas lights. Xx
Do you remember when Christmas stuff did not appear until after Halloween? A trip to London sounds fun, x
DeleteJust a 100 days huh.. and soon another year will come to a close.
ReplyDeleteSeems to have come upon us quickly this year.
DeleteBah humbug.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the chrimbly food adverts which had tables groaning with excess food interspersed with news articles of folk not being able to afford heating....
Cheers Kate, I found some of last year's adverts quite obscene. I doubt the crop for this season will be much better.
DeleteNormally a quiet time for me apart from being fetched to youngest son's home to watch the grandchildren opening their presents, followed by a huge Christmas Dinner. Not sure how much longer this will go on, as grandchildren are now 13 years and almost 18 years . . . . and both of them seem to prefer gifts of money, rather than presents to open. Then back to my quiet home . . . . . . . . .
ReplyDeleteHi Rosemary, I guess it is still hard not to have Benji waiting when you get home 😢
DeleteI do miss the patter of little feet when I open my front door and a furiously wagging tail welcoming me home'.
DeleteYes, the shops here are filling up with Christmas fripperies and food stuffs already. This year may well be a Christmas on rations for me, now that would be nice and simple. I'll just be sending all the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids money to get what they actually want, and then sitting down with my homemade paper chains, party hat and sausage rolls for a film watching spree on the television.
ReplyDeleteWe sort of did that once - not rations but Himself was having a massive Ba-Humbug so I thought 'sod it' and decided I wasn't going to doeverything on my own.
DeleteAnd we had a perfectly normally, nice, everyday meal on the 25th which he had been warned about in advance. So he complained it "didn't feel very Christmassy" . . .
I remember homemade paperchains ☺️
Fortunately I designed this year's Christmas Card last January. You've reminded me that I had better get printing the photos and design the envelope. As I write this I only have about 55 days to foreign posting. Arghhhhh!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your task Graham.
DeleteI stopped sending cards the year Daisy arrived and am staggered to realise that was in 2012. Not sure where the last decade has gone but in my case turning Christmas Cards into a large donation has been a good move.