Prject 365+1: Days 350 - 356

Well, Christmas is nearly here! It's been a really busy week, but luckily I've finished work until after Christmas (and even then it's only for one day before New Year, so hopefully I won't find it too taxing). Hopefully everyone is all set for the holidays, I think I am, and if I'm not, then it's a little bit too late and everything'll work out even if something minor has been forgotten.

Day 350: Happy Birthday Oops

As I mentioned last week, it was Mr Click's birthday. I bought him some new slippers (as his old ones were getting a bit tatty, then Tara decided to help them along a bit and they got even tattier), a Pet Shop Boys CD that came out recently (Elysium) and one of my greatest gift finds; the blu-ray boxset of Indiana Jones films. I'd suggested a while back that I'd get him the Star Wars films on blu-ray because he's not seen the prequels and he mentioned that he'd liked the Indiana Jones ones. So when the time came to get his birthday presents, it just happened that Indiana Jones was just being released on blu-ray, perfect timing! And of course, I didn't say anything so he had no idea that was what he was getting. He was so pleased that we watched them all this week.

The day wasn't without a slight hiccough. I completely messed up my cards this year (well, I think I bought a card that never actually left the shop) because I ended up with two anniversary cards and no birthday or Christmas card! But a little bit of arts and craft work covered up the mistake, if I hadn't told him, he probably wouldn't have noticed. The card had red and black hearts with floral patterns on the front so it fitted in very well.

Day 351: Curious World of Christmas

This is the book was reading at the beginning of the week. I'll post a review of it at some point. I like to read Christmassy books in the run up to Christmas, this year I've read a lot more than normal thanks to Amazon having free books available which have some sort of Christmas element in the title, I went crazy downloading them all. I've got almost forty now.

The Curious World of Christmas is full of interesting little facts about various elemtns of Christmas, from the food to little traditions as well as little stories about memorable Christmases from people in different or unusual jobs. I think I've had it for a while but I've never read it before, but I'll probably read it again next Christmas.

Day 352: Polly Roley Poley

This week I finished the first of my Roley Poley dolls (after taking the photo above I added a little belt threaded around her waist in the same colour as her ties on her plaits). I'm really pleased with how quickly she's knitted up and I've made a good start to the next one.

I got a bit of money for Christmas from my Nan and so I decided to put it towards some of the Jean Greenhowe knitting books (which are really similar to the book I've been using for my Roley Poley family). I decided to go for three (Knitted Animals, Toy Collection and Knitted Hedgehogs), the Toy Collection one was a bit of a last minute decision. But then the other book-book that I wanted to get wasn't available so I spluged on the MacScarecrow Clan pattern book as well. I should be well stocked on knitting patterns until this time next year!

Day 353: Secret Santa

One of the forums I visit has a Secret Santa book exchange (organised by the wonderful Jen). I bought my gift and sent it off the other day and my own one showed up and is now waiting under the tree for Christmas Day to arrive. I can't wait to see what it is, there's nothing quite like getting new books at Christmas.

Day 354: Secret Santa Strikes Again

And then at work the next day we exchanged gifts in our team Secret Santa. We didn't do it last year, but this year it was lovely and a real laugh. I got a big box of chocolates (Lily O'Brien ones, the sort Mr Click used to get me when we were first going out). They're yummy, I'm saving them for a little while, but I think I might have to crack them open on our anniversary tomorrow.

Day 355: Underwhelmed

Tara has been very good with the tree, decorations and presents. I was half expecting her to try eating everything but she's been very well-behaved. In fact, she seems a little underwhelmed by the whole event. I'm sure she'll feel rather differently come Christmas Day when she gets to open her stocking (and when Mr Click was unwrapping his birthday presents she seemed very keen to help him with that).

Day 356: Christmas Cards

In the past I used to put up a string for hangings cards on at Christmas. What with Mr Click's birthday, our anniversary and Christmas we can end up with quite a few cards hanging around. This year I even got the right sort of pins for hanging up strings, but never got around to putting them up. We've got cards on almost every shelf of the bookcase, both windowsills in the living room, and on the speakers by the TV. This windowsill is just half of the cards from people at work.

Last night we also had my work Christmas party, which was basically a ceilidh with a buffet. It's been years since I've been to a proper ceilidh but I got up and danced to the Dashing White Sergeant which was a bit exhausting (especially because I was partnering two guys who didn't have a clue what they were doing!). I love ceilidh dancing, when I moved to Scotland and we started doing 'social dance' in the run up to Christmas everyone used to moan and groan about it, but I always loved it.

I'm pretty much crap at dancing which is why social dancing suits me so well, because there's set moves and everyone does them. The local ceilidh band is brilliant as well because they walk everyone through the steps to make sure you know what you're doing, and they're great about getting everyone up on the floor as well. I really hope we can organise a summer ceilidh or something because I don't want to wait a year to do that again.