It's a glorious day here, and I had a little amble by the loch.
It's a miserable grey damp-but-not-actually-raining day here. We had an outdoor church Christmas mini-market (in lieu of our normal Fayre and on a small scale) and it went well. Many who came expressed their appreciation both for the cheer it brought and also for the care we took in making it a safe environment. I'm now home, having just enjoyed coffee and excellent CAKE (a local company always donates us quite a few). Now I shall have a nice BATH.
There's now the vestiges of a lovely sunset; there was apparently a cracker of a sunrise here today, but I wasn't up in time to see it (and the useful* windows of the château are on the wrong side.
I'll get my share of sunrises next week when I start work ...
* The windows in the bathroom and bedroom are too high up to see the good bits of sunrises.
Here it's been a misty, chilly, cheerless day and I'm glad to be able to close all the curtains against it and shortly to begin preparing the stir fry and opening the red wine.
Grey day here too but I managed some walks either side of the 6 hours of writing my assignment, then did a few bits of housework and filled the bird feeders. Now sitting down to relax for the evening. I think I might make a latte with Baileys.
The windows in the bathroom and bedroom are too high up to see the good bits of sunrises.
You could bore a porthole, or a squint ...
Yeah, that'll be right ...
Bread now on its second rise. I decided to try making four slightly smaller loaves rather than three normal ones - they might be easier to fit in the freezer, and a half one might be about the right size for making a sandwich to take to work (assuming I'm organised enough to do such a thing). I may have to go back to Fork Handles and see if they've got lunch-boxes.
Liver, bacon and mash for lunch, and broccoli and Stilton SOUP for supper. Red WINE to accompany both, as I no longer have to get up for Church in the morning (I'm taking a break whilst we're in lockdown/Tier3).
Still, the day hasn't been wasted. FatherInCharge emailed me with his fearsomely ambitious list of Christmas services, so I've been busily updating Our Place's website...
I needed to make a new loaf today, using the machine. Like the last white loaf, it doesn't seem to have risen enough. I had to open up during the second rising as it was all up one end and press it out evenly. It didn't feel warm enough. This was new flour, different from the last failure. I did a malted flour loaf the other week, using the same yeast, and it rose OK - that programme starts with warming the ingredients, which the white doesn't. Next time, I'm going to interfere with the programme to increase the time of the proving sessions. All three loaves had an improver added, which has vitamin c and extra gluten in it, and which has worked OK before.
First day of eased lockdown here, and rather pleasant it was too. The annual farmers' market* was still on, and we had a very enjoyable wander about, tasting some very nice WINE and FOIE GRAS. Captain Pyjamas got to stroke a passerby's dog, so everyone was happy.
* Not sure this is the right term, but can't think of a better one. It's an annual event where producers of very tasty things around France bring their wares and sell them straight to the public. It's just round the corner from our house.
Had bavette steak, which always recalls a dinner we had in Limoges in a very basic just-off-the-motorway motel, but nevertheless good restaurant. Suitably accompanied by a Limoux red.
Fredericton has a weekly farmers' market that's famed throughout Canada, and rightly so. It was worth it for the CHEESE shop and the (seasonal) corn-cobs alone - it's one of the things I miss from NB.
Supper chez moi was Piglet's Pancetta Pasta, with freshly-baked bread and a glass of WINE, and very nice it was too, though I say it what shouldn't.
....I decided to try making four slightly smaller loaves rather than three normal ones - they might be easier to fit in the freezer...l
I batch bake now and then, cutting each loaf in 2 and freezing. Until recently I was making 2 loaves, but I’ve now realised that in only 30ish minutes extra time I can make 4 loaves. Sometimes I slice a loaf using an electric carving knife so that if I forget to defrost a loaf in time to use it I can take a couple of slices out. The lovely local very independent bakery (specialises in sourdough but also does delectable pastries) now sells fairly locally produced organic flour, including spelt, so I’ve been experimenting with 150g spelt (rather than wholemeal) to 250g strong white. I’m planning on replacing some of the white with wholemeal.
Much excitement today - the flute orchestra I play with is having our first online concert at tea time (we didn’t want to impact Strickly’s viewing ratings ). After it finishes I will be driving over to the music director’s to present her with a flower-and-chocolate bouquet - creating that is my project for the afternoon.
I bake a loaf every day (a 1lb one). I then slice it and any uneaten slices go in the freezer. It means I’ve always got bread to spare in case of visitors needing a sandwich or piece of toast. (Visitors! A thing of the past!).
Quarantine day four -
It’s a mizzly day here so I don’t think any garden tidying will be done. My ‘spring clean the whole house’ activity continues - about an hour a day, which is enough for very easily bored me.
I’m making a birthday card for my friend and I’ve chosen a batik-style technique so it’ll probably take most of the afternoon.
Tatze is waiting very patiently for my brother to come and take her for a walk at 2pm. 🐾🐾
My friend has eaten some of the loaf and liked it. But he liked the last one which was a brick of dough with no bubbles from the yeast. I haven't tried it yet myself.
Wow @Boogie. An hour a day of cleaning. Respect. >notworthy<
We have a very Zoomy day on a Sunday - a catch up with the family, coffee with friends and then a small study/fellowship group in the afternoon. Sometimes in the middle of it all we watch our church service from this morning, but we're weeks behind on them now. I feel a bit bad about that because I know people work very hard on them.
I've now sampled the loaf. It has an even texture all through - I've sliced it for easy use later - and a reasonable flavour, if slightly on the yeasty side. But the texture is more cakey than bready - not bad, but not what I have had before. I'll have to look up the instructions for modifying the process. I should have lengthened the proving yesterday so the heating kept on, instead of just pausing it. The dough felt clammy.
Brunch heaven: avocado on TOAST, with smoked salmon and a couple of tomatoes, followed by berries with yoghurt and granola.
It looks like not a bad day here, although it's very dull - I've got the lights on and it's not even 2 in the afternoon yet! Oh well - November - Scotland ...
@Nenya - I think I posted the pancetta recipe a while back - I'll have a look and see if it's still there and I'll post a link.
In other, not so good news, I heard this morning that David's mum died last night (see Aging Parents). She was 91, and had a "good innings" until a couple of years ago when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. RIP Nora.
It's pretty dim here as well and I've got some lights on just to cheer the place up a bit. I should go for a walk before our next Zoom at 5pm, but it doesn't look very inviting out there.
I'm hoping to get our Christmas decorations up sometime next week. I've broken the news to Mr Nen, who is Bah Humbug about Christmas, as I reckon it's reasonable once we hit December (quite a few houses round here have theirs up already) and if ever there was a year that we need the long nights brightened up it's this one.
David was terribly bah-humbug about Christmas (he put it down to having to start doing carol-singing gigs at the beginning of December); if I hadn't put decorations up, there wouldn't have been any.
There aren't any in the château yet because I ordered them from Am*z*n and forgot to tell them that I'd moved, so they were sent to my sister's place. We're not allowed to move between tiers at the moment except for work, so I'll have to wait until she can bring them over.
I might put some lights up this week, (which is early for me, but agree that this year needs brightening up) and I normally put out the silk poinsettias and the porch decorations at the start of the month anyway.
Last night we watched the YouTube feed of a carol concert. It was the biennial Festival of Village Carols, featuring lots of the ones from Sheffield and north Derbyshire, and some Welsh ones. Apparently there were a thousand registrations across Zoom, Facebook and YouTube, so a much larger audience than the normal number who fit in a village hall.
Tonight is the turn of Coventry Cathedral's Advent carol service online. Our local cathedral is doing theirs next weekend over two sittings, but trying to do that with the 3 Dragonlets wouldn't be much fun: we normally go to Coventry anyway as the building layout is easier for looking after children. We have some mince pies to enjoy afterwards like normal though.
I am wearing my seasonal t-shirt today, but I have views about decorations, heavily influenced by my birthday being tomorrow, and by the fact that having the tree up for 6 weeks rather than 2-3 would be awkward.
This week's calendar is mostly revolving around Dragonlet 3: the Health Visitor is coming tomorrow, and I finally get to register her birth on Tuesday.
I am wearing my seasonal t-shirt today, but I have views about decorations, heavily influenced by my birthday being tomorrow, and by the fact that having the tree up for 6 weeks rather than 2-3 would be awkward.
Ah - the issue of birthdays at this time of year! I have a mid-December birthday and my mum (God rest her) always insisted that "the decorations must be up by Nen's birthday". I think it was because I was born at a time when they kept you in hospital for 10 days after having a baby and she always said how she felt fine and was helping cut out stars and make paper chains to decorate the ward that year. I therefore associate my birthday with having the decorations up and the one year I didn't manage to do it didn't feel right at all.
On the other hand, I used to work with someone who had the same birthday and her mum had always insisted that "No, we're not doing anything Christmassy until L has had her special day." It all depends on what you associate it with, I guess.
I draw the line at cards, though - no Christmas cards go up until after my birthday as I want to enjoy them arranged round the living room for a few days. Now that I've got my own little study the cards then come up here and live on my bookshelves, usually until their place is taken by Mother's Day cards (yes, they stay up until March ).
David's birthday was 10th December, and I generally avoided putting up decorations (apart from the candle-bridges, which we both sort of associated with Advent, and would stay up until Candlemas) until the 11th.
PS - @Nenya - Piglet's Pancetta Pasta recipe now available upstairs.
We usually put the decorations up in the middle of December, but I'm going to push for next weekend instead. They have to be rescued from the loft and I'm not getting the ladder out of the shed and clambering up there to get them, and my husband is away from tomorrow for a few days. I'll buy a wreath for the front door probably tomorrow or Tuesday through.
It's my brother's birthday on the 17th. Mum was kept in hospital over the Christmas much to my disgust. I was having a not very good time at my paternal grandparents and missing her heaps. I was very unimpressed when I got to meet him too! It's also my husband's birthday on the 27th, which is a totally rubbish day for a birthday as everyone doesn't really feel like celebrating all over again.
One of my neighbours has today switched on the Christmas lights which are strung along the rigging of his Ark. There is also what appears to be an illuminated white sea-lion on the deck...
In such gloomy times, weather-wise and everything-else-wise, it makes for a cheerful and cheering sight.
I hope to visit our local Oxfam shop later this week, post-lockdown, to buy some Christmas cards. I shall look out for any suitable Adventy and/or Christmassy things they have, which might be suitable to put in the windows of the wheelhouse of my Ark.
It’s granddaughter N’s 14th birthday today and as a celebratory activity she requested putting up the Christmas decorations. Fair enough in these strange times.
As for me, I like to wait until December is well established but the candle bridge will go in the front window this week, just as I displayed a rainbow earlier in the year, for cheer and support.
I've bought Christmas cards, but in my usual procrastinatory way, haven't written them yet. I thought that I'd put an address list on S's laptop when I was staying with her, but apparently not - I must have just dug out addresses from somewhere else!
As I left our old computer in Canada, I'll be somewhat limited in who I can send to ...
Really must do them tomorrow though, while I've still got time!
First thing to appear at rouge heights will be our snazzy new advent calendar. It's one of those wooden ones with little drawers that you fill up yourself. I have painted it red and white, stuck on gold stars with the numbers, and put a snowman and Father Christmas ornaments in the engine to drive the train. We need to get the nativity set out of the cellar as well.
We looked at Christmas trees today but won't get one until mid December. We want a real one and they dry out too much if you get them too early. Husband en rouge wants a BIG tree, which I've pointed out is going to take up a lot of our living room. But I think I'm going to let him have his fun and move the furniture
On the subject of Advent Calendars, a local wine agent has put together a WINE Advent Calendar at special request. Rather a lavish gift, I thought, but he said that he's had a number of requests after some of his customers learned of this.
My birthday is 1st December and my mother refused to even think about Christmas preparations before then.
Much as I am cheered by the early arrival of Christmas lights this year, if they all get taken down on Boxing Day, as seems to happen round here, then January will be a very gloomy month indeed.
Normally our Christmas decorations go up after Eldest grandson's birthday on Dec 12th, but they won't be going up at all this year, as it requires a trip up into the loft first, and that is just too much trouble when no-one will see them.
I do intend to get rid of the layer of dust before Christmas eve, though, in honour of the occasion.
I live on my own and I am afraid I am very dull when it comes to lights and decorations as I don't see the point. I wish that I could find the enthusiasm but I can't!
The Intrepid Grandson #1 has his birthday on Boxing Day, which is why we all celebrate his half-birthday in June!
My best friend when I was about age 6-8 years old had a 25 December birthday. So her birthday was always celebrated on 25 June. School would have been out for a week or two, they had a nice big back yard, the weather was usually nice, and the party always had a fun theme.
David's birthday was 10th December, and I generally avoided putting up decorations (apart from the candle-bridges, which we both sort of associated with Advent, and would stay up until Candlemas) until the 11th.
The 10th is my daughter’s birthday, too. We’ve typically asked her what she wanted—some years she’s wanted the house decorated before her birthday, some years she hasn’t, in which case the decorating happens sometime the week following.
The 10th is my daughter’s birthday, too. We’ve typically asked her what she wanted—some years she’s wanted the house decorated before her birthday, some years she hasn’t, in which case the decorating happens sometime the week following.
Yes, we do this with our son, 15th dec birthday. He gets to choose if the decs go up before or after his special day. He always chooses before!
I usually like the decorations up early, first week in December. We have a fake tree so no worries about it going over. This year they went up yesterday, the kids were desperate and I felt we may as well!
We are terribly disorganised about Christmas decorations and they often go up just a couple of days before Christmas. I’d like them up early this year but we need to do some rearranging in the tiny lounge before we buy the (real) tree. There’s been a few lights up on the estate since the beginning of November and I expect an explosion of twinkling in the streets to occur soon.
Several calendars here, the boys have Lindt ones, husband has a coffee one and I have a Reece peanut butter cup one. There is also a liqueur one for sharing/fighting over in the evening.
Usual Monday, a mass of admin and emails this morning, then I need to write a lecture for Wednesday evening and mark some mock essays for a meeting tomorrow evening (where we will thrash out our marking criteria). If I have time I need to continue writing my own dreaded assignment.
My birthday is 6th Dec and usually I get advent arches and candles ready for 1st Dec and leave the tree and other lights until a few days after my birthday. My birthday cards stay up in the dining room, and Christmas cards have the hall and sitting room. This year decorating will be different as I am waiting for the imminent arrival of a young cat, and I’m waiting to see if she is a tree-climbing bauble-pouncing feline, although the tree (unlit, undecorated) is up so she (hopefully) thinks this is normal and won’t be spooked by a sudden change in her new surroundings.
Yesterday evening I drove to the next town and was entertained by all the bonkers light displays - they are fabulous but I’m glad I don’t live next door to them!
Today I am making individual pumpkin pies - a few days late, but I’ve been inspired by photos from across the pond and I do love a proper pumpkin pie.
I feel I should know what you do, @Heavenlyannie , but can you remind me? Are you a university lecturer, currently teaching online? I ask because your day sounds very similar to my son's, and that's his profession.
We have an artificial tree as well, having had a mixed journey with Christmas trees over the course of our married life. We always had a real one when I was a child, usually with a root, planted out in the garden for the rest of the year; we bought a new one if it was too tatty. Mr Nen's family did the same, except they didn't replace a manky one, so a lot of his Christmas decorating as a child involved trying to disguise the manky state of said tree. When we were first married we had real trees, and then one Christmas Eve when both Nenlets were small pretty much all the needles had fallen off the tree and we headed out to the local garden centre and we procured a very nice artificial tree as a much reduced cost, which served us well for many years.
The first Christmas that Nenlet1 was married I wanted to do a few things differently, otherwise I'd spend all my time missing her too much, and Nenlet2 was working at a local garden centre at that time. So we had a very lovely real tree from there, and that was the pattern for a few years, with a themed colour for the decorations rather than just everything piled onto it. After Nenlet2 left home we continued the real tree thing for a year or two but without him to do the purchasing it became an Issue (Mr Nen got irritated at the length of time I took to choose one) so we've reverted to the artificial one. We've also completely redecorated our lounge and dining room in the past few years and I'm not sure we'd want a water container and pine needles on the new(ish) wooden floor. A big advantage of the artificial tree, as @JennyAnn says, is that it won't go over if you get it up early.
@Puzzler Our decorations stay up until after New Year but I'm thinking about how we might keep some lights going for a few more weeks, to cheer things along.
I am an associate lecturer with the Open University so teaching online is actually normal for me (we have loads more students this year, I think it is a 10% increase), and explains why my lectures and meetings are often in the evening, and occasionally on Saturdays. I used to be a nurse lecturer, specialising in ophthalmology, but teach health and social care these days, from death dying and bereavement to young people, parenting and families. I work flexibly from home 4 days a week and do a professional doctorate in education in my spare (!) time.
This week's lecture is on young people, social change and community.
We have a artificial tree that was bought the year my son was three. At the time it towered over him, now it's the reverse. I buy a least one new Christmas decoration each year (three so far this year), but only throw away broken ones. Out tree is therefore always totally overloaded with a mismatch of various ornaments and I love it. Our house has the original, very ugly, Victorian fireplace in the lounge, that I also love. I chuck tons of stuff on the mantlepiece and the fire surround. Living with Mr Minimalist it's the one time of year I can go wild.
I am very strict with myself about the putting up & taking down of decorations: Up on the second Sunday of Advent, down on the nearest Sunday to 6th January. This year they're going up on the Saturday, so it looks twinkly for our fortnightly Zoom Quiz with my family. I almost always put things up in the same place too - it seems like I "should" We don't have a proper Christmas tree up though (although we have a lovely artificial one) because of, you know, CATS
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I'll get my share of sunrises next week when I start work ...
* The windows in the bathroom and bedroom are too high up to see the good bits of sunrises.
Salted butter here, for sweet or savoury.
Bread now on its second rise. I decided to try making four slightly smaller loaves rather than three normal ones - they might be easier to fit in the freezer, and a half one might be about the right size for making a sandwich to take to work (assuming I'm organised enough to do such a thing). I may have to go back to Fork Handles and see if they've got lunch-boxes.
Liver, bacon and mash for lunch, and broccoli and Stilton SOUP for supper. Red WINE to accompany both, as I no longer have to get up for Church in the morning (I'm taking a break whilst we're in lockdown/Tier3).
Still, the day hasn't been wasted. FatherInCharge emailed me with his fearsomely ambitious list of Christmas services, so I've been busily updating Our Place's website...
* Not sure this is the right term, but can't think of a better one. It's an annual event where producers of very tasty things around France bring their wares and sell them straight to the public. It's just round the corner from our house.
Supper chez moi was Piglet's Pancetta Pasta, with freshly-baked bread and a glass of WINE, and very nice it was too, though I say it what shouldn't.
Much excitement today - the flute orchestra I play with is having our first online concert at tea time (we didn’t want to impact Strickly’s viewing ratings
Quarantine day four -
It’s a mizzly day here so I don’t think any garden tidying will be done. My ‘spring clean the whole house’ activity continues - about an hour a day, which is enough for very easily bored me.
I’m making a birthday card for my friend and I’ve chosen a batik-style technique so it’ll probably take most of the afternoon.
Tatze is waiting very patiently for my brother to come and take her for a walk at 2pm. 🐾🐾
We have a very Zoomy day on a Sunday - a catch up with the family, coffee with friends and then a small study/fellowship group in the afternoon. Sometimes in the middle of it all we watch our church service from this morning, but we're weeks behind on them now. I feel a bit bad about that because I know people work very hard on them.
It looks like not a bad day here, although it's very dull - I've got the lights on and it's not even 2 in the afternoon yet! Oh well - November - Scotland ...
@Nenya - I think I posted the pancetta recipe a while back - I'll have a look and see if it's still there and I'll post a link.
In other, not so good news, I heard this morning that David's mum died last night (see Aging Parents). She was 91, and had a "good innings" until a couple of years ago when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. RIP Nora.
It's pretty dim here as well and I've got some lights on just to cheer the place up a bit. I should go for a walk before our next Zoom at 5pm, but it doesn't look very inviting out there.
I'm hoping to get our Christmas decorations up sometime next week. I've broken the news to Mr Nen, who is Bah Humbug about Christmas, as I reckon it's reasonable once we hit December (quite a few houses round here have theirs up already) and if ever there was a year that we need the long nights brightened up it's this one.
There aren't any in the château yet because I ordered them from Am*z*n and forgot to tell them that I'd moved, so they were sent to my sister's place. We're not allowed to move between tiers at the moment except for work, so I'll have to wait until she can bring them over.
Last night we watched the YouTube feed of a carol concert. It was the biennial Festival of Village Carols, featuring lots of the ones from Sheffield and north Derbyshire, and some Welsh ones. Apparently there were a thousand registrations across Zoom, Facebook and YouTube, so a much larger audience than the normal number who fit in a village hall.
Tonight is the turn of Coventry Cathedral's Advent carol service online. Our local cathedral is doing theirs next weekend over two sittings, but trying to do that with the 3 Dragonlets wouldn't be much fun: we normally go to Coventry anyway as the building layout is easier for looking after children. We have some mince pies to enjoy afterwards like normal though.
I am wearing my seasonal t-shirt today, but I have views about decorations, heavily influenced by my birthday being tomorrow, and by the fact that having the tree up for 6 weeks rather than 2-3 would be awkward.
This week's calendar is mostly revolving around Dragonlet 3: the Health Visitor is coming tomorrow, and I finally get to register her birth on Tuesday.
On the other hand, I used to work with someone who had the same birthday and her mum had always insisted that "No, we're not doing anything Christmassy until L has had her special day." It all depends on what you associate it with, I guess.
I draw the line at cards, though - no Christmas cards go up until after my birthday as I want to enjoy them arranged round the living room for a few days. Now that I've got my own little study the cards then come up here and live on my bookshelves, usually until their place is taken by Mother's Day cards (yes, they stay up until March
PS - @Nenya - Piglet's Pancetta Pasta recipe now available upstairs.
It's my brother's birthday on the 17th. Mum was kept in hospital over the Christmas much to my disgust. I was having a not very good time at my paternal grandparents and missing her heaps. I was very unimpressed when I got to meet him too! It's also my husband's birthday on the 27th, which is a totally rubbish day for a birthday as everyone doesn't really feel like celebrating all over again.
In such gloomy times, weather-wise and everything-else-wise, it makes for a cheerful and cheering sight.
I hope to visit our local Oxfam shop later this week, post-lockdown, to buy some Christmas cards. I shall look out for any suitable Adventy and/or Christmassy things they have, which might be suitable to put in the windows of the wheelhouse of my Ark.
As for me, I like to wait until December is well established but the candle bridge will go in the front window this week, just as I displayed a rainbow earlier in the year, for cheer and support.
My first was Friday. But it was from a woman at church who had moved, and I think she wanted people to have her new address.
As I left our old computer in Canada, I'll be somewhat limited in who I can send to ...
Really must do them tomorrow though, while I've still got time!
We looked at Christmas trees today but won't get one until mid December. We want a real one and they dry out too much if you get them too early. Husband en rouge wants a BIG tree, which I've pointed out is going to take up a lot of our living room. But I think I'm going to let him have his fun and move the furniture
Hah Bumhug.
Much as I am cheered by the early arrival of Christmas lights this year, if they all get taken down on Boxing Day, as seems to happen round here, then January will be a very gloomy month indeed.
I do intend to get rid of the layer of dust before Christmas eve, though, in honour of the occasion.
My best friend when I was about age 6-8 years old had a 25 December birthday. So her birthday was always celebrated on 25 June. School would have been out for a week or two, they had a nice big back yard, the weather was usually nice, and the party always had a fun theme.
Yes, we do this with our son, 15th dec birthday. He gets to choose if the decs go up before or after his special day. He always chooses before!
I usually like the decorations up early, first week in December. We have a fake tree so no worries about it going over. This year they went up yesterday, the kids were desperate and I felt we may as well!
Several calendars here, the boys have Lindt ones, husband has a coffee one and I have a Reece peanut butter cup one. There is also a liqueur one for sharing/fighting over in the evening.
Usual Monday, a mass of admin and emails this morning, then I need to write a lecture for Wednesday evening and mark some mock essays for a meeting tomorrow evening (where we will thrash out our marking criteria). If I have time I need to continue writing my own dreaded assignment.
Yesterday evening I drove to the next town and was entertained by all the bonkers light displays - they are fabulous but I’m glad I don’t live next door to them!
Today I am making individual pumpkin pies - a few days late, but I’ve been inspired by photos from across the pond and I do love a proper pumpkin pie.
We have an artificial tree as well, having had a mixed journey with Christmas trees over the course of our married life. We always had a real one when I was a child, usually with a root, planted out in the garden for the rest of the year; we bought a new one if it was too tatty. Mr Nen's family did the same, except they didn't replace a manky one, so a lot of his Christmas decorating as a child involved trying to disguise the manky state of said tree. When we were first married we had real trees, and then one Christmas Eve when both Nenlets were small pretty much all the needles had fallen off the tree and we headed out to the local garden centre and we procured a very nice artificial tree as a much reduced cost, which served us well for many years.
The first Christmas that Nenlet1 was married I wanted to do a few things differently, otherwise I'd spend all my time missing her too much, and Nenlet2 was working at a local garden centre at that time. So we had a very lovely real tree from there, and that was the pattern for a few years, with a themed colour for the decorations rather than just everything piled onto it. After Nenlet2 left home we continued the real tree thing for a year or two but without him to do the purchasing it became an Issue (Mr Nen got irritated at the length of time I took to choose one) so we've reverted to the artificial one. We've also completely redecorated our lounge and dining room in the past few years and I'm not sure we'd want a water container and pine needles on the new(ish) wooden floor. A big advantage of the artificial tree, as @JennyAnn says, is that it won't go over if you get it up early.
@Puzzler Our decorations stay up until after New Year but I'm thinking about how we might keep some lights going for a few more weeks, to cheer things along.
This week's lecture is on young people, social change and community.