It's December

..... and that means and Advent Swap and yes!! Santa has delivered and yesterday I got my grubby paws on a present - hooray!

My bag from Santa came like this:

It's all wrapped in kraft and dotty washi tape - so lovely, and if you look you can see the first present peeping out from the back - some lovely 6x6 Websters Pages papers - can't wait to have a play with these :)

 
I also made my Christmas cake - with a little help from DS2.  The fruit soaks overnight with some sherry and strong tea before being cooked for ages the next day - the kids traditionally ice it in their own inimitable style, and we'll eat it at Christmas - not a moment before, however much they beg!!

Finally I had an unexpected outing - the neighbours had some tickets for Palace that they couldn't use and as DH and DS1 are mad Palace fans and it was a high octane local derby against Brighton they thought they might like to go.  Sadly for them, DH and DS1 were already tied up so it was left to me and DS2 - neither of us Palace fans - but he wanted to go despite the freezing weather.

With two pairs of socks on, as many clothes as I could fit under my coat, a hat, scarf and gloves and a flask of hot chocolate in my pocket I ventured forth - I don't do football in winter as you get cold!  I'm really glad I did - the football was ok but the experience was really really fun - we stood the whole time - noone sat so we couldn't either.  There was so much singing and a carnival atmosphere, helped of course by the fact that Palace won easily, that we didn't really feel the cold until near the end.    There are a huge contingent of Eastern European fans (where the flags are in the corner) who seem to have adopted Palace and come with their own cheerleaders (men in t-shirts who obviously don't feel the cold) who conduct the singing and keep it going non stop throughout the match - their enthusiasm puts the Brits to shame - I mean, apart from the libraries at Stamford Bridge and the Emirates, 'Sing when you are winning' is a chant that could be fired at most teams in the league.  But not yesterday at Palace!  Unexpected as it was, I had a brilliant time!

In the evening we went round to some friends' for dinner - they had already put all their decorations up and the house looked amazing - put me to shame - ours are still in some else's loft - but now I feel that I really ought to get moving on the Christmas front - not to mention a fair amount of shopping to do - like all of it!!