Advent is well under way, our Elf on the Shelf has arrived, Christmas lights are up on the house, the tree has arrived. I am so not ready for this!!

It's already December the 8th. This week is the start of a fairly busy couple of weeks. We have Christmas plays, Christmas disco's/parties, presents still to buy, Christmas dinner shopping lists to prepare and I have done no wrapping whatsoever. Oh and I've booked in 2 coffee dates with friends too, we all need a catch up and a Costa Coffee once in a while!

Thing 5 is feeling festive

This weekend we went to get the Christmas tree. It's always fun to begin with and buy the time you've picked up and cast your eye over the 10,000th tree to see if it's 'the one', you're kinda bored! So I think it took us about half an hour to choose the tree. We usually opt for a Nordman Fir non drop tree. Inevitably non drop doesn't mean that no needles will drop off the tree and we always find that by Christmas Day it is looking slightly sorry for itself no matter how much we look after it. After we had chosen the tree and had it netted we headed for the express checkout which meant we walked past the more traditional looking Christmas trees. The ones that do drop needles, but then our Nordman Fir always does anyway. It's the kind of tree we always used to have as I was growing up but the OH wondered why we hadn't looked at these in previous years. He picked up a couple and it didn't take him long to find the perfect specimen, and he was happy that they were £18 cheaper than the other trees! Let's hope it lasts until the big day!

Thing 4 choosing the perfect tree and hitching a ride back to the car!

Every year we claim that we will go for a smaller tree than last year. In the big open space of the garden centre the trees never look overly huge, but then they wouldn't. So we pick one, get it home and then you realise it takes up half the living room and you need to cut a hole in the ceiling because it's too tall! The children love it, it has been well decorated by them and Thing 5 likes to watch the lights flash on it. With all of the other decorations up too it's all looking rather festive.

It's all feeling very festive now

Our Elf on the Shelf arrived on the 1st of December and I'm really not into the whole spirit of Elf on the Shelf this year. If it wasn't for Thing 3 waiting her her arrival she would probably still be in the box. I've not moved her each night, she's not been up to her usual mischief and, to be honest, no one has taken a blind bit of notice of her anyway!

Holly the Elf arrived, wearing her new skirt and boots too. 

Anyway, I am so not ready for Christmas yet, so it's a good job it's still 16 sleeps away! I still have present shopping to finish. I have lists of food shopping to do, party food to get, a Christmas friends party evening to host, plays to watch, a pub quiz Christmas dinner to attend and the children finish school a week on Friday, arghhhh! I so need to be done before that deadline.

For now, I will continue to slowly rock in the corner, which probably isn't helping with progress on anything!

Lights on some nearby houses, Thing 5 loves the Christmas lights this year and we have to keep going out to have a look at them.