Finishing Touches

The last few days have been a flurry of doing all those last things that need to be finished for Christmas...

Wrapping the gifts.

Making homemade treats.

Icing the cake.

And making the pudding (six hours of my life I'll never get back).

I'm signing off now for Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful time and a fantastic new year :-) See you in 2015!!!

The cake

While the boys were at school the other day I finally got round to baking the Christmas cake. This is a day's work between the prep and baking so it's best to get it done without the rascals under my feet :-) 

Ta daaa! I'll leave it to rest for a week or so before icing it. Now I just need to find a spare 6 hours to get the pudding done!!!

Festive Shopping in Dublin

I absolutely love Dublin's city centre at this time of year. It is cold and so festive with all the decorations, little market stalls and gorgeous shopfronts...

Only 15 days till Christmas!!!!!!

It's not too early anymore!!!

YES!!! I finally coerced my husband into letting me get started with the Christmas decorations yesterday. He's been saying it's too early for MONTHS now ;-)

First up is our bookshelf. It's always stacked with random bits and pieces, books, ornaments etc but some little additions have Christmafied it nicely :-)

I love how elegant something as simple as some pretty baubles in a crystal glass bowl can look.

Then there's the mantlepiece...

I might add a grassy gold garland to this scene, haven't decided yet.

And of course, the TREE!!!

It's seven feet tall, the perfect height for our living room.

We went for a nice traditional red, gold and silver theme this year and I love it! Our decorations are a combination of new, old, homemade, gifts and some from my childhood Christmas trees that my Dad gave me :-)

I can't wait for Christmas day!!! It's lovely and cold and festive here in Dublin and we are really enjoying it!! Is your tree up yet? I know some people started decorating last month!!! They're not married to my husband ;-)