Wonderful Wednesday #98

{The sight o f a little festive greenery forever has my little heart in a flutter!}
Good day to one and all!  I still can't quite BELIEVE that the day after tommorrow it will be Christmas day!  And this year especially i really will be saying that right up until i collapse into bed on Christmas Eve - you can bet your bottom dollar!  I'm half blaming my return to Monsoon Towers - and having myself fired instantly into the Christmas shopping experience instead of the usual build up i get from mid October.  I think i'm still in SHOCK!  And the weather isn't helping!  Can you believe it was sixteen degrees up here last Saturday?!  If it wasn't for the Christmas decorations and fairy-lit windowsills on my walk to work i'd have really believed that it was Spring!  Madness!   That aside i'm fairly finished on the Christmas shopping front; minus a few odds and ends needed to grab for the Mr {why are men forever the hardest souls to buy presents for?!?}.  Then there's just the wrapping…..but it wouldn't be my usual Christmas eve if i didn't have some wrapping left to do.  But as usual {how many years before it's officially a tradition?!} i plan to accompany this with a large glass of mulled wine and a mince pie! 

Shall we get Wonderful Wednesday-ing with a little festive slant?!?!?  'Cos heaven knows i need all hands on deck to muster up some festive spirit i really do!

1.  Helping customers to find the perfect gift.  Heck there's no where enough time to spend with customers as usual {it's much more 'help, sell, wrap, next'} BUT it's ever so lovely to offer help when it really does feel a little bit like the end of the world at work at the moment.  If you don't know what it is you're looking for than Accessorize is a little bit daunting!   

2.  Christmas DIY-ing.  Well i say DIY-ing but it really is more arranging things in a festive way - one of my very favourite things to do!  I mentioned last week that this year we havent really got a big tree as usual.  Instead we've got the sweetest teeny tiny real tree and i have fiddled and faffed all over the place to make up for it!  We have lots of sweet white paper snowflakes dotted about and fairylights strung from floor to ceiling to add a litle more of a festive feeling to our livingroom.  I've also filled some old vintage glasses on our kitchen tea-shelf with teeny tiny glitter baubles and battery powered fairy-lights -  they look magical!!! And ive strung up a white paper garland of turtle doves round our bedroom skylight which i've fallen in love with.  On the rare morning that i'm still in bed as the sun rises {few and far between of late!} it makes the prettiest shadows.   I actually rather like that our whole home looks festive instead of just one little corner of the living-room.  

3.  Clementines with leaves on.  Well any kind of clementine will do the trick but i've been loving filling our fruit bowl with leafy Christmassey clementines almost as much as i love eating them.  Is there any better snack at this time of year?!?!?

4.  Digging out my glittery tinsel crown when i was rummaging through our Christmas box.  I love its tiny tinsel stars and little jingly bells and i'm so excited to wear it on Christmas Eve at work and for spending Christmas Day with my parents.  

5.  Anticipating spending Christmas Day with my family and the Mr.  Because your mums' Christmas dinner is always the best in all of the land isn't it?!

6.  Laying all the presents out on Christmas Eve.  I can't lie them out before because some people can't be trusted around them and will try and guess what they are!  Even after you've grown up there's still something magical about seeing all the presents twinkling under the tree on Christmas morning isn't there?!

7.  Roast lamb.  More to the point Roast lamb with a honeyed parsnip crust and served with tender-stem broccoli and spicy roast potatoes followed by spiced ginger and pineapple and sponge and custard.  Even more to the point, coming in from the busiest most tiring day at work so far and having this ready for you.  Spoilt!

8.  Chocolate porridge.  'Cos it's what's keeping me running through these longer and busier days lately and i'm sure of it!  It's easy-peasy and only calls for a basic porridge recipe {made however you usually do} and by adding two teaspoons of raw cacao powder just before you take it off the heat.  I also add a teaspoon of coconut oil and sprinkle toasted coconut, caco nibs and goji berries on top.  Just for extra super powers…..

9.  Feeling useful.  A totally not festive-specific point BUT something i'm grateful for all of the same.  It's now been a touch over a week back in my old job and i'm so proud that i've forgotten nothing - despite jumping back in head first at our very busiest time of year.  It feels so lovely to be back and a part of our special little family again.  It doesn't even feel like i've been away!  And i mean that in the loveliest way possible.  I'm feeling ever so grateful.  

10.  Christmasey tea, drunk curled up under the duvet on Mondays' day off {the last before Christmas Daaaay!!}.  A new slant on my usual cup of Lady Grey but one which i greatly welcomed even if the snow and frost that i imagine would set the scene perfectly are a little absent of late.  Bought hurriedly from M&S foodhall:  a tea spiced subtly with cloves, cinnamon and a little orange and drunk strong with a dash of milk.  Sort of like Chai tea but more…..zesty.  Delicious and perfect company for that chocolate porridge of mine!  
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It's officially over to you!  Fire at me the moments and little joys that are making your heart simply sing 'Christmas' so far this week, for my tired and weary self would love to share in them too, as i'm sure shall anyone else who whizzes by this sweet corner of mine.  Remember to drop a sweet comment below or you can tweet me over on twitter or better still, tag me in your #wonderfulwednesday Christmas moments on Instagram - i'd love to share along with them too.  I'm @sallytangle on…well everything! 

Whilst we're all here together too, may i just thank you from the very bottom of my heart and more; for forever supporting this little space and being the best bunch of lovely faces that anyone could ever be lucky enough to get to know.  I am forever grateful for all of the RT's, emails and Instagram comments and conversations that i have with the little community i have been lucky enough to find myself a part of.  And that is all thanks to this little blog!  And you!  

I'll be back before 2016 BUT, i just want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a super duper New Year!