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Christmas prep at the house is in full swing and I LOVE it! I love all the excitement, anticipation and the decoration.
When we moved into Flore House in the June of 2013, I immediately started planning Christmas, and I went totally over the top. November arrived and I found an amazing company near Birmingham to deliver me an 18-foot tree! I bought an industrial size stand and counted down the days until it’s arrival. I had not however measured the hall prior to ordering, I had looked and thought wow that’s high and purchased I felt appropriately.
The tree turned up and even I was surprised by its length (it was bound up tightly). I had enlisted the help of my dad and three brothers with the install. The first Saturday of December arrived, and I could not contain my excitement, the tree was carried in and hoisted into the stand with a lot of puffing, blowing and cursing from the 4 men involved and quite a few ‘this is too big George, what were you thinking??’. I was not having any of it, until the tree was upright in its stand and approximately 2 foot of the tree was bent along the ceiling.
No problem, this was easily fixed by hanging off the stairs with a saw. The cut end was easily disguised by the enormous star I purchased; I was delighted! Next, to unravel the tightly bound tree … I had not even considered the circumference of an 18-foot tree. Well, it was like when Lucy and Edmund stepped out of the wardrobe and into Narnia, the whole hall and I mean the whole hall was covered by Christmas tree. We spent the next 4 weeks wading through branches to get up the stairs to bed and all 3 of my brothers dined out on it for the whole of Christmas and well into the New Year.
Then there was the Christmas we walked back from the church carol service on Christmas eve and every room in the house was lit up with a bright red light looking like something from Amsterdam. A week prior the large old boiler had finally given up the ghost and in a blind panic I hired heaters as we had a house full of family staying over Christmas and discovered when we turned them on, they were bright red … they were so bright you had to turn them off to sleep!
The year my eldest brother and dad put up the 14-foot tree on their own and the first I knew about it was when my bother entered the kitchen looking very pale (he is so laid back, some would say almost horizontal). When asked what the problem was, he said he had nearly taken down the chandelier when putting up the tree. Good news was it was still attached to the ceiling, bad news was it was quite severely damaged. Que everyone in the kitchen running into the hall to find the chandelier swinging violently with lengths of crystals dangling everywhere and piles of crystals on the floor.
But even with a disaster or two, Christmas is always magical, lots of family, friends, food and drink with an argument or two thrown in for good measure!
Oh, nearly forgot the year I got my Christmas food delivery on the 23rd of November … that was a highlight for the family!
Stay safe,
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