GRADUALLY INTRODUCING CHRISTMAS...

... into our house. At the moment we just have a few lights up in the windows, nothing much, but it does look pretty. You know me, I don't really do decorations and like to keep it minimal, colour-coordinated with the decor, and easy to clean round. I can never get my head round the folk who decorate every inch of their living space as if their lives depend on it, or even those who insist on putting the tree up before it's even December. For me, the tree only goes up after 18th December when we are into Christmas week. A lot of that may be down to a bit of superstition and is associated with James being hospitalised with meningitis on 18th December when he was coming up to his third birthday - but it's a date I really have to get past before I feel able to start feeling Christmassy. This time in a fortnight my Mum will be here and we'll be sweltering in tropical heat as I try to keep her warm in the house. I'm actually worried about how I'm going to do this, having been to her house recently and realised that she has the thermostat so high that the radiators would actually burn you if you touched them and feeling sick with heat exhaustion after only a few minutes. I don't think anyone will be wearing Christmas sweaters in this house!!