First Christmas

Since we have been together, Veggie Hubby and I have spent four Christmases on different sides of the Atlantic ocean. Every Christmas, he would ring me at 9am in the morning (3am his time) to wish me Happy Christmas! Last Christmas was the first we spent together. However, we didn't have the chance to get our own decorations because we didn't even have a home - in the month running up to Christmas we were living in B&Bs (the thought brings back bad memories!). We had only been living our flat for 10 days, and barely had the chance to even unpack, let alone think about getting decorations, when we left England to go to Canada for Christmas.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that this Christmas is our first opportunity to buy a tree and decorations. We spent this weekend getting some, which was fun! Here are some of our new decorations. So perhaps we are slightly early in putting up our tree, but we wanted to make the most of spending Christmas together. We can really appreciate it, unlike last year when we couldn't, as were living in someone else's house, and only had one small decoration.

Retail therapy

I haven't blogged for a little while as work (and Strictly Come Dancing!) is taking over my life... yes, weekends too :-( Ah well, the deadline is next week so it's nearly over now. Anyway, today I did a little retail therapy and bought myself a Radley bag. I've been wanting one for ages, and today seemed like the right day. My current bag (which isn't that old, just a few months) is already falling apart so I thought I'd better invest in a higher quality bag, and get one I really wanted. VeggieHubby always made me feel guilty about purchasing a Radley bag as they are made of leather, but this one only has a small amount of leather in it. I just love the little Radley dog.

Whiskers the cat

I just got a new pet cat for my blog, Whiskers. Well, I can't have a real one living in a second floor flat, so it's the next best thing (perhaps....). Feel free to play with him!

He is cheering me up from this horrible cold, and all the work I've got.

Hats and Scarves

It is a chilly November; the right month for hats and scarves. Here is Tatty Teddy wearing a scarf knitted by the talented Frankofile for my niece (which I accidentally ended up with) and two Innocent Smoothie Big Knit hats. I love the hats, which seem to appear on smoothie bottles every year around November/December time. Veggie Hubby and I wanted to buy one last year, but by the time we decided to, they had all sold out. So, when we saw them tonight, we bought them before we missed our chance. They are so cute. A group of knitters at work make them, as well as other charitable knitwear. Perhaps I should join them to make some Big Knit hats myself, but I think I prefer buying the hats to making them!

P.S. The flowers are a lovely birthday present from J&J - thanks!

Happy days :-)

I had a good day today, here are some reasons why....

1) Obama (obviously). After 8 years of "W" Bush, at last Americans have seen sense.

2) There are new Christmas drinks in Starbucks, and an absolutely delicious one - dark cherry mocha, mmmm. I couldn't resist it at lunchtime today. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

3) I had far too much work, which has been really stressful, but my concerns have been taken seriously and some of it was taken off me this afternoon and given to someone else.

4) It is Wednesday, but I only have one more day left of the week as I am taking Friday off. I can't wait, as I haven't had a day off in two months and am going to see "The Sound of Music" in the West End, and to a vegetarian American-style diner restaurant. I also am looking to cooking for some friends on Saturday.

5) I am going to the pub tomorrow for a birthday lunch with my lovely colleagues.

6) We have been waiting a month for some keys to arrive from my father-in-law. I was convinced that they had got lost in the post, but they eventually arrived this morning. This means that we have somewhere to stay in Montreal at Christmas. :-)

Is that enough reasons to smile for one day?