Christmas round up - 1D, duck, balls and post

 Christmas has kicked off.

A multi-house, multi-pc approach to One Direction ticket sales meant we managed to get a set of VIP tickets and a set of incredible seats at a less stupid price within 5 minutes of the tickets going on release.  A great relief in terms of Cog happiness, a great blow to the bank account.  Luckily I managed to sell the 'mistake' buy incredible tickets within 6 minutes of letting my friends know of my predicament.  Popular boys!

We have had our Automatic Crispy duck night, earlier than usual because of pre mock exams and the stress that will be the run up to Christmas because of them.

 We put the tree up earlier than I would normally too.

 The usual cat humiliation that goes with the tree decorating happened too.

 Little kitty isn't as patient as fat cat and she took herself off to hide pdq,

Fat cat felt it would be appropriate to sit on her!    The traditional Christmas cat fight ensued.

 Funny how Christmas must follow the same routines for pets and children alike.

Cog loves unwrapping her 'old friends'.

 And playing with the old Christmas toys,  this one is 15 years old but still as good as new.  She's always looked after her things well.

Some things are new though.  The local Scouts and Guides are doing a Christmas post this year.  We have put boxes out and people pay 20p a card. The Rangers were given a delivery weekend and it has been a fret for me for a while, not sure how many we would be expected to deliver or how many girls would turn up. But these things have a habit of working out and it did.  We got it all delivered in 2 hours with 7 girls and HWMBO doing the 'difficult' ones.  It took him as long to do 4 cards as it did us to do 50.  Some people's houses are very well hidden and some envelopes are very badly addressed.  The great god google helped him through it.

In the usual lead up to Christmas the wrong gods are hand holding me there, hopefully soon my advent will be less about chocolate and more about preparation for the Christmas festival.

The first candle lit on Advent Sunday is for God’s people, the candle of hope. The second candle is a reminder of the Old Testament prophets, the candle of peace. The third symbolises John the Baptist, the candle of love.  The fourth is for Mary the mother of Jesus, the candle of joy. And the last candle, lit on Christmas day, is a symbol of Jesus – the Light of the World.

So many Christmas lights are going up, it's lovely to brighten up the dark winter nights. It's also good for me to occasionally remind myself what they represent - hope, peace, joy and love.