Christmas Eve 2018

I'm spending Christmas Eve evening sat on the sofa in festive pyjamas watching a Christmas film and admiring the fairy lights adorning our small-but-perfectly-formed Christmas tree. December has flown by in the blink of an eye.

At the beginning of the month, my boyfriend and I went ice skating at the natural history museum, my favourite place to skate outdoors. It was so much fun and by the end of our session I was skating with a little more confidence...well just about! 

We also made the trek to Columbia Road flower market, with the intention of just browsing to see how much Christmas trees and wreaths were. We walked right through the market without anything catching our eye until we reached the last stand, where the most perfect tree was sat waiting! We got it netted up and my boyfriend heaved it over his shoulder for the long walk through brick lane to the tube station. It took a while and trying to navigate the crowds was a task, but it got back safely and we had an evening of decorating the tree.

The following week we went to Hampton Court Palace for their annual Christmas fayre. The palace is steeped in history with a wide array of sights to see. You can walk around the former Royal apartments, take in centuries-old paintings in the art gallery and take a stroll around the grounds.

Some of the ornate decoration on the ceilings is breath taking.

We grabbed lunch from the fayre in the courtyard (which was a little disappointing as it was not overly festive) however there were singers singing festive songs which was nice to listen to as we ate lunch. In the gardens we found the rest of the Christmas fayre which was more festive and we purchased some decorations for our tree.

Later that week my mum and I went to the Birmingham Christmas market. I like to go every year if possible, but for the last couple of years it hasn't seemed to be as good, it seems to have fewer market stalls and less variety. That said, we still enjoyed our visit and had a nice afternoon.

On Saturday my parents came to stay for Christmas, so I arranged a little festive buffet for dinner and yesterday evening we had a gingerbread decorating competition, which was more competitive than I envisaged haha, but they all turned out so cute and everyone had fun!

We've also had a couple of nice evenings wrapping up gifts whilst watching a festive film and snacking on a tin of chocolate, enjoyed lots of roasted chestnuts, mince pies and a couple of glasses of Buck's Fizz. Later on I'll do a final tidy of the flat, a little preparation for tomorrow's dinner and arrange the presents under the Christmas tree...Merry Christmas!