Tis the season...

Well the best laid plans did indeed gang awry this week, as the tree stood bare in the hall day after day, its decoration slipping backward in the priorities until we reached the point of no return - today: the day of our mulled wine party.

After a fairly relaxed start we set off for Homebase to get a few extras - candles for the house, a few extra decorations, that kind of thing. Our flabber was totally gasted when we pulled up at White City retail park to find the shutters down and the Homebase warehouse totally deserted. It's closed down! Luckily B&Q (Home Depot for my North American readers) is just around the corner, and proved to have an adequate supply of goodies. More than adequate actually. What we'd really gone out for were curtain poles for the study. What we came back with were three wise men fetchingly rendered in polymer resin, three lengths of tinsel and a pot of three candles.

It was down to business once we returned home, and after spending a little over two hours decorating to the sound of Christmas tunes, the tree was looking fabulous. Even better, if I may say, than last year. But there was no time for idling - we had holly garland to thread up the banister, lounge and conservatory decorations to hang, cleaning and tidying, and sorting out the party music to attend to.

So here we are at a little after 6pm, with everything done. Now all that's left to do is shower, shave, change, eat, and await our guests!