The Countdown to Christmas
We’ve been busier than ever in the run-up to Christmas this year, which is why I’ve not had time for much blogging. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to cram in some festivity around our mountains of work, and I was somehow able to finish my Christmas shopping and present-wrapping in record time. It’s now a week til Christmas and I’m slowly winding down and finishing off my work for 2015. I’m having a couple of weeks off over Christmas and I can’t wait! After working six or seven days a week the last few months, I feel I’ve definitely earned it.
It’s been lovely seeing all the Christmas lights go up over Warwickshire, and I particularly love the beautiful simplicity of those in Warwick, where we went out for a free dinner courtesy of our Tesco Clubcard points recently.
Further afield, I also loved the Cirencester Christmas lights when we drove over there last week for dinner with our two sets of parents.
We had a lovely meal at a French-inspired restaurant called Beaujolais, which was looking very festive.
Another highlight of this year’s run-up to Christmas came last Friday, when our friend Jonny gave us free tickets to see The Nutcracker at the Birmingham Hippodrome, which he was conducting.
It was my first ballet, so it was nice that it was a friend conducting it! I really enjoyed the production, especially the mice (although I have to admit I thought they were rats!)!
On the work front, we’ve cosied up our clubhouse for Christmas, and it’s lovely in there with the Christmas tree up and the log burner going. I’ve been working there quite a lot, which is great because it means I have Lee to support me through my spells of low motivation. He’s been warming up mulled wine on the log burner and bringing it to my desk – such a good husband!
Last night we went into Stratford-upon-Avon for what has become an annual tradition: the lightshow at Shakespeare’s Birthplace. The house where Shakespeare was born is illuminated with clever imagery to the accompaniment of music and Shakespearean words, and it’s different each year. I wrote about last year’s here. There were no actors this year unfortunately!
After the light show, you get free admission to the Birthplace garden, which was also looking very pretty with its own illuminations, overseen by the Moon (which looked much better in real life than it does here!).
It was also a nice chance to see Stratford’s Christmas lights, and there was a Christmas market on, so we had a potter around that as well.
I prefer the simplicity of Warwick’s Christmas lights, but those in Stratford are still quite impressive!
I’m stopping for Christmas early-mid next week, so hopefully I’ll have time for lots more blogging during my well-deserved break!