CHRISTMAS WHIRL

Christmas has come and gone! It's New Year - 2009! Before I have the fun of posting lots and lots of lovely photos I must attend to the leftovers of the seasonal festivities.

Can I live without a Christmas tree? Well only if Number One Son brings me a better substitute ... and indeed, it came in the form of himself bearing a bunch of (wooden, painted) tulips from (Schipol) Amsterdam. Wonderful!

Here they are in pride of place on the window ledge which is part of the beautiful south-facing oriel window in the living room. A few Jingle Bells from Ishie's toy box (well, Grandma's toy box kept for Ishie) add the (quite unnecessary) seasonal flavour.

The 2 lovely cards are from (left) Margaret McArthur, our old neighbour across the road and (right) Marek and Iwona who live in Warsaw.

Christmas has to have light, any kind of light and the best I could do this year was one candle. I have 3 boxes of candles and for the life of me, could not find one candlestick or holder. They appear to be resolutely packed away. So no Swedish snowballs this year.

Never mind! IKEA Bargain corner on the way out is a place Mairi and I cannot pass without a very quick look. And the problem - for me - was solved. One glass candle holder for £1 and 50p for little red boxes (Christmas tree ornaments). Done. When searching for the candlesticks I came across our lovely dolphin bowl (a birthday present to me from my mother).

And the flame in the candle? Photoshop! Pure experimentation, i.e. I couldn't possible repeat the run scheme! But such fun I had doodling ... what a time-waster! (It's freezing outside and Iain and I are both nursing colds.)

Look at some of my Christmas presents! John's CD The Einaudi Collection is buried in the pile. It's a real stress-buster; I must remember to put it in the glove compartment of the car.

Leftover clootie dumpling back from Dunira. We are pretty well dumplinged out at the moment. The Richard Scarry book underneath is Grandma's Perogative, i.e. I buy books in the Oxfam shops that I like. Hunka Munka and Lowly Worm are old friends from the 1970's!

And so to New Year... Somewhere it came and went midst all the whirl of people arriving and departing plus Ishie's birthday on New Year's Eve. This, I can see, is going to take some getting used to!