Christmas is coming!

I loooooove Christmas. I could take it or leave it before I met my husband, but he has put the magic back in it for me (I vividly remember him turning up at my flat on our first Christmas Eve as a couple and unpacking the tree, decorations, and ready-wrapped presents he'd bought for me as he knew I wasn't planning to bother at all!). Since the children got to an age where they appreciate the festive season, too, I've become more and more addicted to the whole affair and now I'm worse than my husband for over-excited Christmas planning from as early as September.

Over the last two weeks the children and I have made our Christmas cakes (complete with very sweet wish-making from the two littlest children as they stirred the cake - eyes scrunched shut and lips moving frantically!); we have written our Christmas cards (or scribbled on them, in the case of Tig); bought lots of tins of chocolates and tubes of Pringles and squirrelled them away; and of course our DVD of The Snowman has made its annual appearance along with the pop-up Night Before Christmas book. I am aware it's only the second of December...

I've got all the shopping done, too. The most fun for me this year has been choosing presents for my best girl friends - unfortunately my excitement means I've had to buy them all variations of the same item in a lot of cases, as I knew they'd all love it equally, but at least I've managed to get different colourways to save confusion! It's better to buy them all the same thing, anyway. Saves arguments.

This photo was taken LAST Christmas, by the way. We haven't got a tree up. It always goes up the weekend after Egg's birthday, so that'll be the 13th this year. Also, Tig is a LOT bigger now than she was in this photo!