Christmas is coming...I'm not ready...

I’m late for Christmas. 

My decorations are still in their hidey-hole in the roof, my lights are sitting in their boxes, the Christmas hanging basket that I’ve adopted instead of a wreath is still in the shed.

The Christmas short story I’d planned to write is still just a bundle of notes.

What is up at Fielding Towers I hear you shout?

Nothing bad, it’s just that we’ve had builders working in the house for weeks. Weeks of dust. Weeks of noise. Weeks in which everything has been out of place and upside down.

But finally the room is done, bricklayers have done their stuff. Electricians have worked their black arts. The plumber (a romantic who read one my books and fell in love with reading again) has moved and installed radiators. The painters have given me beautiful walls that are just waiting for pictures and I have battled the dust ninjas and fought them to an honourable draw – you can never win.

My grandchildren are coming this weekend (they don’t know it but they’re going to Disney Paris for Christmas!) and so now I have to get cracking and sorting out the decorations and putting up my tree.

There are gifts to be wrapped. Cards to be written, treats to be baked. Oh, and the small matter of a broken tooth to be fixed – the dangers of eating toast.

There is also a book to be written, but not this week. This week is spoken for.

I hope your holiday preparations are in better shape than mine.

Have a wonderful Christmas (with a ton of books under the tree) and may 2017 be a happy and peaceful year for everyone.