Christmas is Coming

We try to get our tree during the first week of December, as they are quite expensive and I like to get my money's worth out of it! We went over to Sharnfold Farm and came back with our 7' spruce:

We'll decorate it this evening when the girls get back from the Jacqueline Wilson book signing they have been taken to by their father. Judging by the texts I have had from the girls about their dad's reaction to the change of plans regarding Christmas Day, we will need a pleasantly distracting activity...I don't think baby goats on Countryfile is going to cut the mustard :-/

I have made a mini stocking from the book of 20 Mini Christmas Knits that I borrowed from Nicky:

Doing the picot edging with double strands of that bloomin' gold thread was a bit of a pain but I think it's quite effective. I also got round to stuffing my reindeer bauble, and whilst I was feeling grotty with a cold yesterday, I made a Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran version of Peggy the hen :

I think the resemblance is striking:

I want to make a set of the seven chickens I have, but I was looking at Henry today thinking I will have to use a bit of artistic license to save me ending up with a different colour strand for every stitch.

The white call ducks have been a bit wayward recently, and have a penchant for ending up nextdoor. They were rootling around in the leaves and mud by the front steps today:

You can see the road, plus a lot of people walk their dogs down our lane to get to the Cuckoo Trail so it really isn't a very good idea. I usually have a length of chicken wire across the gateway but I tend to pull it out of the way on Saturday nights so the poor Ocado driver has one less trip hazard to negotiate - I'm sure they draw lots at the depot to see who has the short straw of delivering to me through my unlit, muddy, flowerpot-strewn garden with its unhelpfully narrow concrete path and badly placed paving slabs. They earn their 99p delivery charge when they come to me!

I made cinnamon buns for breakfast and cooked a roast lunch but of course now Tristan is hungry again. I bought him 3 Conn Iggulden books to have for Christmas to follow on from the one he got for his birthday, but he has already finished the 2nd and 3rd ones so I have asked if I can at least wrap up the last one so he can open it and pretend it's a present, albeit rather early.

Right, I'd better go and hide all the decorations that I don't want the girls to put on my nice tree ;-)