Oh y'know, Christmas! (Or maybe Catmas, which will sound more appropriate by the end of this post) I feel like that last blog post opened the floodgates for my festive cheer to come pouring in. Panto time, Christmas tree decorating, present wrapping, and watching some feel good festive films on TV. This jolly and sparkling time of the year is definitely in full swing.
The week after the sleepover I went to see my first Panto of the season with Claire
at the Tron Theatre, which this year is Sleeping Betty. The Tron is venue quite close to my heart after studying theatre at uni and working on a few plays there. They always put on a fantastic show, full of hilarity and often with a wee Glesga' twang throughout. Not to say that you wouldn't enjoy this panto if you weren't Scottish, but a lot of the jokes really did tickle me as a Glaswegian. We did not stop laughing and smiling throughout the show, especially at Handsome Dan (the fanciest dancer in all of the land!) I will definitely be taking my brother and sister back to see this, and if you get the chance to go then I promise you won't regret it! I find Pantos (and pretty much any shows to be honest) much more enjoyable in a decent sized theatre venue like the Tron or The Citz, rather than a massive, soulless auditorium which is meant for concerts and trade shows. The atmosphere at the Tron is so cosy and magical, you'll be immersed into panto land from the word go.
The Tron have recently relaunched their Bar & Kitchen, so Claire and I had a catch up over a bottle of Prosecco and their Pre-Theatre menu before the show. I think this is the first time I've eaten a pre-theatre menu, before actually going to the theatre! It was 3 courses for £16.95 (or 2 for £12.95, but who can say no to desert?) and I went for the Chicken Liver Pate and Oatcakes to start, Fillet of Grilled Shetland Salmon for my main, and a Christmas Pudding Cheesecake for desert. I checked the menu again today and it looks like some of the dishes have changed already, which I was surprised about (but I actually quite like that) I would be even more inclined to revisit the bar & kitchen knowing there were always different dishes on offer. However I'm also quite sad because I've been pining over the the Pate and the Cheesecake since we left! The salmon was delicious too, and the saffron and roast pepper cream gave it a real christmas twang. I think I'll probably have had around 5 unofficial christmas dinners before the big day (hey, not that I'm complaining)
Back in the flat, me and Pete got dressed up in our Christmas Jumpers and hats from George
while decorating the tree, and Pete made us some delicious christmas cocktails too. I got some pre made mulled wine from Wholefoods at the weekend (much to Pete's dismay) but I prefer to just drink it sans alcohol. I was a bit worried at how long the tree would last, as Binx completely demolished my Grans tree last year and she had to take it down on boxing day! Luckily this time he's not been trying to climb it, but has just had a sly nibble on a few of the branches instead (and finally stopped, when he's realised they don't taste very nice)
Binx is a kitten stuck in what seems like a panthers body. I got these beautiful Christmas flowers from Blossoming Gifts, and he will not bloody leave them alone! I adore the colours of this Mistletoe arrangement, and love the fact that it has a little Scottish twist with some blue eryngium, which look like baby thistles. I'm always on the look out for cat friendly bouquets, as you might already know Lily's are poisonous for them. Dexter would never bother with flowers, but in the last few days as the bouquet has started to look a bit tired (it has lasted a lot longer than I expected it to) and I've been finding little rogue petals in Binx's bed. What is it with cats and christmas trees or plants?! I would buy them even more often if I didn't need to worry about petals being nibbled. If you'd like to treat yourself to some lovely festive flowers, you can use the code BGIFTS33 to get 33% off a bouquet! (This excludes the 'Flowers By Post' range)
The next morning when Pete went to work, I moved the living room table out of the way, locked the cats out (becoming a theme of this post, yes?) put a movie on and set about wrapping my christmas presents. I really do not enjoy wrapping at all! Despite being a creative and somewhat neat/tidy person, I just don't have the patience or talent for wrapping gifts. I would quite happily pay someone to do it for me. They always end up looking like a bit of a dogs dinner. Or should I say cats dinner, don't even start me on Binx breaking into the living room and stealing various tags and bits of ribbon haha (AND breathe) I got my wrapping paper and charity cards from Paperchase, along with ribbon and tags from Remnant Kings, as I wanted to add a slightly different feel to my wrapping this year. Not quite sure what those wooden tags are actually for! Or what exact 'feel' I was going for... plus I wish I had nicer handwriting for everyone's names. Despite that, I'm quite pleased with how they all turned out. I also went down a more personalised route this year for a few of my gifts thanks to Zazzle, along with a couple of custom backpacks that arrived for my little brother and sister a couple of days ago. Growing up I was never able to find any personalised things with my name on them, and I found it quite exciting to customise some gifts for my family. I've been using adobe illustrator a lot for work this year so I was pretty impressed with the editing software on the site. There are so many options for customisation, every item I chose ended up looking nothing like the original product photo on the site, but in a good (and unique) way.
I wrapped the last of Pete's presents today while he's been out at work, and tonight we are going for Christmas dinner number 3 with my grandparents. I finish up my christmas temp job at lush next week too, and plan to just work on my Forever Living stuff from home as and when I need to over Christmas and New Year. It will be so nice to have a wee break, I can't believe this crazy year is almost coming to an end. We are spending Christmas Eve and morning in the flat, then Christmas day at my Mums, but I hope to have another wee post squeezed in before then. Hope you are all having a good week, and for those who work in retail... I hope your coffee is strong and your shifts are short!
