Glitter is good, drab is bad!

People (including The Hubby) take the piss out of me because I like glitter. For me, the more the better.

I can't help it. I'm drawn like a magpie to things that sparkle and shine and because of that, Christmas is a wonderful time. I love the fact that not only can I deck out my house with an inordinate number of sparkling lights, tinsel and shiny streamers, but it becomes socially acceptable to wear large amounts of glitter as well.

The world is a drab place by and large, and a little bit of glitter makes me feel better. A large amount, even more so. I know if we had it all the time it would become commonplace and therefore not be so uplifting, but it's a pretty harmless thing to love and definitely, for me, makes the world a nicer place.

I've never been a minimalist in anything I do. If you're going to do something, you might as well really go for it. Therefore when I decorate my house at Christmas, not for me the tasteful string of beads and homespun looking tree decorations make of old bits of sack and gingham cloth, so beloved (I assume) by the earth mother NCT brigade. My tree has enough silver tinsel, and so many baubles and glittery snowflakes on it that it makes you feel frosty cold, and the light reflects and dances round the room where the coloured fairy lights catch them.

The dining room is festooned with shiny streamers (this year, to my delight, I found an old stack of unopened ones we bought from Woolworths several years ago and then never used, in gold and bronze foil), a second tree and a fibre optic twig tree that twinkles at you in a rainbow of colours. It's all staggeringly bad taste, and I love it.

Perhaps because of my overboard approach, my daughters sadly don't much go in for ornament at all, although they will wear a bit of sparkly eye shadow on occasion when they go clubbing. I have seven different shades of glitter eye shadow in my make up box, glitter eye liner and two or three different glittery nail varnishes. Originally I bought them for doing shows, but I like them so much they have migrated to my day to day make up box and I use them when we go out to dinner.

I think the world would be a much better place if we all adopted this approach, and in fact if I were in charge I'd love to pass a law about it and make it compulsory. so vote for me, the Glitter Party, if you want the world to be shinier and happier!

Almost there

Well now I do feel very smug. I felt pretty smug last week, but today the smugness has reached epic levels. Because I am ready for Christmas. ALL the shopping is done - food as well. I was in Morrisons at 7.15am this morning filling up my trolley with vast amounts of unhealthy food and alcohol, and now it is all stashed away in the cupboards awaiting the weekend. Yum. In fact YUM.

Ready in other ways too. Last panto rehearsal before Christmas was last night and did the whole thing without my book (one prompt, but you can't have everything and there is still three and a half weeks to go). Last working day today (on hols tomorrow) and finishing off lots of tedious annoying jobs which have been hanging around for ages and feeling good about them (not sure all my colleagues will, when they get the e-mails and requests for information, but never mind, they'll get over it), pressies all wrapped, washing and ironing up to date. The only thing left to do is clean the house, which I'll do tomorrow, and make my Greek Meze for the family 'do' on Christmas Eve, which I will enjoy doing.

Of course I have been lucky this year (well, in a way) in that I was signed off work for six weeks during October and November because of my knee arthroscopy, so did a lot of internet shopping and organising then. But even without that, I usually do manage to be organised reasonably in time. It's just the way I am - I dislike putting myself under unnecessary stress and pressure by leaving things to totally the last minute. After all, Christmas isn't a surprise is it - I mean it happens on the same date every year - so it ought to be possible to plan for it. The reason I got up and went food shopping at an unfeasibly early hour when it was still dark this morning is because I planned it - I didn't want to have to fight my way round the aisles with the rest of the town at 11am, and I have better things to do tonight.

It really does feel like Christmas now, doesn't it? Although the weather isn't very Christmassy! As you will know if you have read previous postings on this blog, I don't like snow one little bit but it would be nice to have it bright, crisp and frosty on Christmas morning - the sort of weather where you can see yourself breathe and it's so bright the world sparkles. You can never have enough glitter, as far as I am concerned, and if Mother Nature can provide more, even better.

Just off to finish a few more e-mails and then to make some mince pies! Excess rules in this house, even though we will regret it in January. But that's a long way away, isn't it!?