Lifestyle: Feeling Festive

I’m not quite sure what it is about this Christmas, but I’m looking forward to it more than I have done in a while!

I’m normally a bit of a scrooge. I hate Christmas songs playing in the shops from mid-October, hate how busy things are, and I can’t stand the smell of mince pies. Yet this year I threw on Heart Christmas (my new fav radio station), my festive jumper and begged to put the tree up on the 1st December. I think it’s a combination of working full-time (and having two weeks off over Christmas, roll on 5pm on the 23rd!) and it being my first Christmas living with W – it just feels so magical and exciting!

We picked up our tree a few weeks ago – getting a bit of a bargain in the process. It’s a 7fter – tall, but as it’s a “slim” tree it fits quite nicely in it’s designated corner and doesn’t overwhelm the room. It’s box is also pretty compact. A bit of a relief, really, considering I wasn’t thinking and ordered it to store. In the City. Trust me, getting a Christmas tree home on the Tube isn’t the easiest of tasks…

Our color scheme is a *little* confused this year, as we didn’t want to fork out for a load of new baubles. Turns out a certain someone had forgotten about playing “indoor cricket” last January with wrapping paper and tree decorations, so quite a few hadn’t survived. It was a case of mom to the rescue, and she treated us to a gorgeous box of rose-gold baubles. I’m hoping to ditch all of the red decorations next year and go full-on copper-y colours.

I’ve also invested in decent wrapping paper (it’s not just wrapping paper, it’s Marks & Spencer wrapping paper…), I’ve gotten all my presents bought and wrapped wayyyy ahead of time. Last year we were frantically wrapping on Christmas Eve, so this isn’t like me at all!

Of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without trying out some of Costa’s festive drinks. I found the Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate insanely sweet, to the point of having a headache about half an hour later – though the glittery marshmallows almost made up for it! The Orange Hot Choc, however, is by far my favorite. So yum. We also indulged in some of their Christmas foodie items. We were a little let down by the Pigs in Blankets Panini – it only being sausages and bacon rather than an actual pig in blanket. Better was the Christmas Dinner Toastie, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

(My work canteen does an actual Pigs in Blanket panini, for less than my lunch allowance. It’s so, so good. Very dangerous, I had three this week!)

Now all I need to do is find me an advent calendar and catch up on all the chocolate I haven’t eaten!

How are your celebrating the run up to Christmas?