It's almost Christmas!

Hi Honeys
Something has been happening recently. Shops are starting to get busier, people are carrying a LOT of shopping bags around between stores, TV channels have started showing way too many toy ads.... Yep, it's almost Christmas :)

Where has this year gone? I remember being told as a teenager that the older we get, the more time speeds up. Of course I thought at the time this was silly. I mean, there are seven days in a week, fifty two weeks in a year, right?

Ah, the innocence of youth! Of course time itself doesn't actually speed up, rather it is our perception of it that alters. Life becomes so full with work, family, homemaking, including never ending laundry... ok I actually enjoy that last one :)  What? I do! I love laundry! I get such a sense of satisfaction, of sheer, absolute joy when standing at the kitchen windows looking out at lines of lovely fresh laundry blowing in the breeze :) Why oh why can't it be Summer all year long?

I digress :) My love of laundry (and Summer) aside, we're now only weeks away from Christmas.  The holidays themselves are of course different for everyone. I've blogged before about our lack of holiday celebrations, you can read about our New Years (or Hogmanay if you're Scots) post here honeys.  Our Christmas does not include any decorations, crackers (their loud bangs are terrifying to small animals! so with a very nervous furbaby we won't have them in the house) or even a tree.  We do have a nice dinner, and then mostly just enjoy that we have an extra day or two to be together and enjoy each others company. We watch our latest DVDs in an effort to avoid the never ending rubbish that passes for holiday TV schedules, it's not exciting but we love it :)   

The fact that we don't celebrate the holidays does not mean that we don't appreciate how blessed we are in our life.  I was told many years ago by my dear Grandma that every single day, as soon as I wake up & before starting my day, that I should take a minute to look around me.  If I have a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in and food in the kitchen that I'm doing better than maybe a 3rd of the world, and to take a minute to thank my angel, because surely I have one looking over me.  I've never forgotten that and every day I am grateful for the blessings we have. We're not by any means rich but we have each other, our furbaby Jade and family & friends we love dearly, those are riches beyond measure.

This year I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time :) With Hubby's help I'm going to make my own Christmas Cake and I'm considering making the Scottish equivalent too, the beyond compare "Clootie Dumpling" If we manage to accomplish this I'll blog the results for you :)

I hope you've all had a fabulous week and are looking forward to a wonderful weekend dear ones, till next time, sending heaps of hugs xx