Tuesday 4: Holiday Specials

I saw this at Pamela's blog and it looked like fun, it's called Tuesday 4: Holiday Specials begun by Toni Taddeo and kept in her memory, here are my answers:

1.  Do you have a favourite Christmas carol and if so is there a particular version you especially like?

O Holy Night. I don't have a particular favourite version but it's such an atmospheric song, it really lifts my spirits. I also like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

2.  Do you have a special dinner for the holidays? What foods are included?

We have a meal on Christmas Day with the girls and my mum and dad. We have turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, roast parsnips, stuffing, cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puddings*, gravy, and pigs in blankets. We follow this with Christmas pudding with a brandy flame. This year our youngest daughter would like a vegan/vegetarian option, so we'll look into that.

*Yorkshire puddings are not a sweet but are a something eaten with a roast dinner, usually roast beef but we love them so much Christmas dinner wouldn't be the same without them haha

3.  Holiday movies ... which do you like to watch?

Ooh. We start off the season with Die Hard and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We also love to watch Christmas with the Kranks, Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone, Polar Express (except G hates this film lol, but me and the girls love it) and we have added Red One as a favourite too. I quite like Deck the Halls.  I recently watched The Holdovers and Last Christmas - I totally recommend, really, really great films!

4.  What traditions do you continue to keep year after year for the holidays?

We always start the season with Die Hard (definitely a Christmas film!) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I go to Candlelit Carols with my dad (and my mum when she was well), which is a very traditional service with a choir on the 21st December. We have a night in the week where we visit a local street that decorate their hours with soooo many lights and outdoor decorations. It's so pretty and there are QR codes posted on the street where you can donate to a local hospice after visiting the lights. We open presents on Christmas Day as a family first thing while we have breakfast. Then when my mum and dad come we open presents with them after lunch.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday everyone! 

Join Sandra and others for Happy Homemaker Monday at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

The weather

It's sunny! Woo hoo!

Right now I am

Resting up still, sat on the sofa eating cherries and drinking honey and lime juice, waiting for this interminable flu to end. I am so ready to feel health again. The fevers have totally gone but now just congestion and an awful cough. But rest is the answer.

Thinking and pondering

How annoying it is that I can't do all the things I want to do! I missed Bookclub yesterday and I was very mad about that. There are so many jobs around the house I want to do and in the garden. But sometimes God allows illness to force us to rest, so I'm tryyyyyying to be good 😂

How I am feeling

Positive, despite the icky flu. Gotta stay cheerful people. Speak positivity to yourself.

On the breakfast & lunch plate

Blackberries, walnuts, oats, dried cranberries and sultanas with yogurt.

Probably going to have falafels with houmous and guacamole and a bit of salad.

What I am wearing

Still in my jammies...but I have nowhere to go so why not? 😂

On my reading pile

A Christmas Resolution by Anne Perry

The Confident Woman by Joyce Meyer

On my TV this week

• Better Watch Out (the twist in this film 😱)
• Die Hard
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team

Something fun to share

Look at what the Home Alone House looks like now!! Wow. I'm a maximalist kinda gal, so I actually prefer the 90s look LOL. Seen at @architectanddesign on Instagram.

Looking around the house

Working on cleaning the shower.

To do list for the week

• I need to do a grocery shop
• Going to try and take it slow, which is so hard I have so much to do!! Breathhhhhhhe haha

From the camera

Keeping me company while I've been sick 🩷

Devotional, prayers, Bible verses

Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen

The night has passed, and the day lies open before us; 
let us prayer with one heart and mind.

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever.
Amen.

Morning prayer, Advent, Monday, 8 December 2025.

Have a beautiful day and week! 

Sarah

Comments

 I just realised I had comment moderation on! I'll take a look at comments now 😂

So much to do! So little time :)

I've got a busy day ahead. I have a bunch of errands to run, shopping and cleaning to do.

Errands is a funny word. Hang on...

List:

• Meal plan
• Grocery shopping
• Pick up my prescriptions.
• Change bedding.
• Plan Christmas presents (yep, I still haven't even looked at presents yet 🙀)
• Buy Christmas cards
• Get decorations out of the shed
• Clean hall and stairs

I'm sure there was something else...it'll come to me.

The woman customer on the left reminds me of my mum in the 70s. Look at her writing a cheque and chatting with the cashier, those days are almost gone - I wonder if supermarkets still accept cheques?? Now you're lucky if you find someone on a till, instead I get stuck with an automated till shouting UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA and some poor shop worker trying to keep up with 20 different tills at the same time. Urgh. Give me a human who is managing just one till! UK stores are being taken over by automated tills, do you have those in your neck of the woods? They are so annoying.

Yesterday I was reasonably productive. I did a few jobs first thing but then came over so sick, dizzy and almost panicky feeling. I put it down to post-flu fatigue and had a lie down. I slept for about an hour. After that I felt quite a bit better and managed to give the living room a really good clean.

Have a lovely day

Sarah x

Happy Homemaker Monday - Except it's Tuesday!!

 I sat down to write this post, my first blog in MONTHS. I went across to Sandra's blog and saw that she'd put that the 1st of December was Monday. And I looked at my date and it said 2nd December. I was confused for a good few minutes until it dawned on me. It's not Monday, it's Tuesday!!

In my defence I have just had an awful bout of flu so I'm not sure what day of the week it is.

Join Sandra and others for Happy Homemaker Monday at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom - who all no doubt did their post on a Monday haha.

The weather

It's been raaaaaainy recently, but looking at the forecast it's going to ease off today.

Right now I am

Sitting up in bed with a coffee, thankful that I haven't woken up with a fever. Thank goodness, this has been a rotten bout of flu. Our eldest, B, recently started a job in a school and she'd only been there a couple of weeks when she was hit with this flu bug. Poor thing. She had to ring the headteacher to explain, and missed some important training. So I'm hoping that they won't see this as a negative - but it can't be helped. If you're ill, you're ill.

Thinking and pondering

A friend of mine who is going through the most awful time.

Whether I am going to have the energy to do any housework today. I have a pile of laundry as high as the sky.

Going to find the cat, she has disappeared and is very quiet, so I am suspicious she is up to something naughty! 😂

How I am feeling

A bit discombobulated to be honest. I have a lot to think about at the minute - my family, my health, my job. I'm really looking forward to Christmas. I can't wait to decorate now. We have done our Christmas tradition of each choosing a new ornament/decoration. I want some new lights. But we'll see what we have

On the breakfast plate

I'm thinking banana, raisins, yogurt, oats and bran.

No idea about lunch and dinner, G and L have been taking care of food while B and I have been sick.

What I am wearing

My jammies.

On my reading pile

I've just finished The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey. It was my bookclub book for this month and I really enjoyed it. Gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5) on Goodreads.

On my TV this week

I have watched a LOT of TV on my laptop in bed this past few days.

• America's Sweethearts
• Stranger Things Season 5
• Last Christmas 
• Falling for Christmas
• The Holdovers
• Signs
• Fit for TV - the Reality of the Biggest Loser

Something fun to share

This is such a heartwarming video: Nick's Garden Rescue. Nick is an elderly veteran who is isolated and lonely and unable to take care of a jungle of a garden. They sort out his garden and get him a car. It's just the sweetest thing.

The world can seem such a dark place, but there are more people who care than those who are horrid. The news over-reports negativity and drama because anger and fear makes people read more than heartwarming stuff or encouragement (that's why rage-bait is a thing on the internet). It's human nature, we all remember so clearly those times that people have been mean to us, but easily forget the compliments and the kindness. It's the same with the news, we gravitate towards the drama. But keep looking for the kindness and the things that are beautiful. Fill your mind and heart with the good stuff.

Looking around the house

The house desperately needs a tidy and a clean, but we'll see how well I feel later.

To do list for the week

• Laundry
• Clean & tidy
• Think about Christmas shopping (I've barely even thought about it!!)
• Decorate for Christmas - woo hoooooo

From the camera

Devotional, prayers, Bible verses

Come, Lord, Come to us.

Enter our darkness with your light,

Fill our emptiness with your presence, come refresh, restore, renew us.

In our sadness, come as joy,

In our troubles, come as peace,

In our fearfulness, come as hope,

In our darkness, come as light,

In our frailty, come as strength,

In our loneliness, come as love. Come refresh, restore, renew us.

-David Adam

Have a beautiful day and week! 

Sarah

A Tangled Web

I love the Anne of Green Gables series, right up to the later books about her children: Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside. But I haven't read any other books other than Blue Castle (which is great). So when I saw one of her other books A Tangled Web in the library I was excited.

It was published in 1931, and you can see the differences with the Anne books, in that they talk about cars and people being shocked that women were wearing dresses showing their knees and cutting their hair into a bob haha. I really enjoyed it. It took me a while to get into it because there were that many characters introduced right at the beginning and I kept losing track. But it soon all fell into place.

There were some amusing storylines and some really sweet and moving. Montgomery has a skill in that she creates characters that you care about.

[slight spoiler ahead]

I gave it 4 stars (out of 5), it lost a star because, although some of the storylines that interweave the book came to a happy ending, I wanted to know a little more. Like the storyline on little Brian Dark, a lonely orphan. It gave him a happy ending and the story finished, I would have just liked a chapter on how he felt and how his life improved following his happy ending.

I'm now reading a funny book called Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella.

Happy reading!

Sarah xx

My plans are threefold

 My plan today is threefold. 

1. Hang out washing.

2. Continue with project garden tidy-up

3. Meet up with L* and her boyfriend this evening (with G* and B* too of course) for pizza this evening. 

[G - husband, B - eldest daughter, L - youngest daughter]

I'm looking forward to seeing L. The last time I saw her B and I had travelled over to her university to help proof read her dissertation. She was a bit stressed, we spent all day in a cafe with me buying coffees and lemonades and lunch to keep us going. So it'll be nice to see her and just have a catch up. She's heading off down south with her boyfriend for various events. He lives down south with his mum and dad having finished university last year. So we probably aren't going to see much of her until graduation in July and I really miss her!

The garden is looking much better, although I managed to flatten our tiger lilies as I was trying to get to some nettles and ivy that had sprung up at the back near the fence. Honestly, you only have to look at a tiger lily and it collapses. I also noticed Coco had flattened some other tiger lilies to make herself a little bed in there 😂

They are very squished.

Because I have been so diligent with the weeding, there is no long grass anywhere, so I saved some for Coco. She loves to eat that grass and apparently it is good for her. Here is her little pot of grass haha.

Anyway, I must go hang that washing out.

Have a lovely day.

Sarah x