DECORATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE

When pipes freeze it means: drop everything and get the problem sorted. Mairi left the wee ones with Iain and I while she sorted out their holiday property in Perthshire. Guests were supposed to be arriving or, indeed, had already arrived having been decamped from other holiday accommodation because of frozen pipes.

Iain and I were up for it as we had, or at least I had, a Christmas tree to erect and decorate. Iain can't be bothered with all this tree palaver but I like it ... well, I would, wouldn't I?!!! So there was a lot of things to be getting on with and with 2 little helpers we had a busy day ahead of us!

The tree has been sitting outside our back door for a week and needed to be thawed out in the shower before hauling it into the living room.

This turned out to be a wonderful activity to fill an extremely cold afternoon with pre-schoolers. Ishie had all the fun of pulling out tree ornaments from my collection of many years. These ornaments all have a story ... or should that be 'history'? ... and I quite enjoy having a visit' with these bits and pieces that were mostly given to me or made years ago by our own children. Goodness I even have a plastic reindeer from my childhood ... from the days when plastic was a new material in the 1950s!

Ah, the work of Christmas can get all a bit much, can't it? Or maybe this is a male thing ... and I thinking back to my own childhood here!

Although the temperature is still -5 degrees below zero Centigrade, Alastair and I had a short break outside at mid-day when the sun was shining. We took bird seed to throw on the snow (which lasted 5 whole minutes) before he was off collecting sticks. You would not believe the amount of play one wee boy can get out of a stick!

Also the amount of play one nearly 4 year old can get out of a Kleenex box, shoe boxes, old Christmas cards is wonderful! Long spells with a felt pen mean peace and quiet for Grandma!

A woman's work is never done ... into the kitchen to bake bread. Lots of fun ... we baked brown bread with walnuts, the sort of thing Delia Smith suggests for Christmastime. Bill and Connie arrived in the middle of this so we were able to have coffee and toasted walnut bread as we had eaten all the other seasonal fare on offer!

The unseen face of Christmas baking!