Taking the decs down yet?

They should all be down away by now, but they aren't. I am down with a winter bug and after half an hour of bending and stretching to remove them, I have to sit down for an hour to recover, but should finish the job tomorrow.

On our local village Facebook page, someone was listing that they would be glad to collect any real Christmas trees, as their goats love them!

Posted a lovely picture of them tucking in, too!

Commiserations MOnica you & me both!

Rotten isn't it Urmston

Not until 12th night, tomorrow. Christmas never used to finish until then. I remember schools never went back until after the 6th.

Much as I've loved my decorations this year I took the opportunity of my family being away for a couple of days to take them down on Thurs - the thought of trying to do it with a 4 and 6 year old in the vicinity was a bit too much. I also cleaned right through the house and did 3 baskets of washing so in all it's taken me 3 days to get back to normal. The little ones came back and said Nana your house looks all different

Phoenix we went to a farm shop the other day where they keep goats, and they were all *the goats) happily munching on Xmas trees. They were really loving them, adult goats and little ones. Very sweet.

Our tree and decorations all came down yesterday so that we could have a good clean before hosting a big family party today to celebrate a double birthday - with 75 years separating the two birthday boys! I have, however, left the nativity scene where it is to allow the magi to finally reach their destination tomorrow.

Throughout the whole of the festive season I have been banned from doing very much at all, but today I was permitted to use the vacuum cleaner and do some dusting and polishing. I suspect it was simply a ploy to keep me out of the way while The Wonderful Man was creating edible deliciousness in the kitchen.

I've been working from home during my recent illness, but I'm going back to work tomorrow and feeling rather excited about it.

Pace yourself, grannya and take care, try not to do too much at first.

I don't know what bug you've caught M0nica and Urmstongran, tummy or The Cough, but hope you both feel better soon.

The Cough takes a while to go and I can only do a bit at a time, cleaned two rooms today!
(And cooked dinner)

Callistemon cold and cough, sooner that than a tummy bug!

I have now got the decorations down although 2 undecorated trees wait to, in one case, be taken out of the house and to the tip, the other packed back into its box and put in the loft.

That will be done tomorrow I feel exhausted.

I hauled the Christmas tree on to the balcony, because it seems quite alive, and I can’t bear to throw it away in the skip. I’ve just noticed some mistletoe is still up above a window. My father would have been worried: he was quite superstitious, and insisted all decorations were down before sunset on 12th Night.
I had a really good idea for storing the lights: I got the middle of a toilet roll, made a little slit in the top and put one of the lights through, then would the rest around the toilet roll, and finished by putting the battery case inside. (I don’t often have good ideas. ) my floor has a fair amount of needles on it, but I’m sitting on the sofa eating Christmas cake and having a glass of wine. Happy Twelfth Night! It used to be a time of revelry and mischief!

We thought it was because it's hibernation time but it is probably post viral.
I did manage more cleaning and washing today!
Still have Christmas boxes to put away.

Oh, it's 12th Night!
Somehow I think revelry and mischief will pass us by.

Perhaps I'll re-read my favourite Shakespeare play.

I’m doing mine this evening. It was supposed to have been done yesterday but I was needed at my dd’s as her husband got taken into hospital (Home, now with a bagful of antibiotics!).

Dh had taken down what he could but was too scared to remove any of the glass baubles!

In my Mrs Beetons book there is a recipe for Twelfth Night cake. I made it once. It's really boring, but I could eat a piece now.

Mmm it looks similar to Christmas cake.

We have Christmas cake left, perhaps I'll have a piece to celebrate 12th Night!

I just looked up Mary Berry's Twelfth Night cake (BBC Food) and it says
"No cooking required"

Then says 'bake for 2.25 - 2.5 hours

And they’re down chez the Domins! I forgot the box of wrapping paper, though. That’ll have to stay in the dining room until, we go into the attic again.

I also posted off half of the Christmas cake to ds2, who loves it.

Nope. Mine stay up until January 31! I purposely use mostly winter decorations (snow flakes, snowmen, mittens, etc.) along with my small tree and sons' & dil's/gif's stockings hung from the mantle. I like to sit and enjoy the color and lights for a longer time after all the hubbub of the holidays. This is a tradition I started when my job required me to work 60 hours a week up until a few days before Christmas.

"Sadly in the 1870’s, Queen Victoria outlawed the celebration of the Twelfth Night as a day of revelling, fearing everything would get out of hand."

Grumpy old so and so!

Does everyone else always find one decoration that you've missed?
Always found just after you've put the boxes away.

Yup, Callistemon. I think there are baubles in every drawer in the house because of course I never remember where I put them from one year’s end to the next! They pop up at random times through the year.

Anyway, today is apparently Christmas Day in the Orthodox Church so enjoy your decs if you’ve still got them up! ?

I found a little Christmas bell today and a star hanging on a door knob.

Of course, the Orthodox Christians have a different date, I forgot that.
Thank you

Queen Voctoria couldn't have banned 12 night celebrations. That would require an Act of Parliament and I can find no trace of one. She may have banned them in her household, but that would be about as far as she could go. Mind you Cromwell banned them.

In googling this subject I came across this wonderful government site. www.lawcom.gov.uk/app/uploads/2015/03/Legal_Oddities.pdf

Victoria, even!

Took my decs down yesterday, and polished round ( boy did it need it!)
Looked rather bare, but today am used to it, and bought myself a bunch of tulips as compensation.
I usually do find the odd ‘escaped’ dec, but this time didn’t, and in spite of having the same cough lurgy as many, found it all seemed easier to pack away this time.