With one thing and another I have been rather busy recently. Christmas preparations are a little behind…

Stage two of our house decoration project was delayed (due to unexpected circumstances) from the expected October schedule until last week. This meant last minute furniture relocation from three rooms in readiness for the decorator to perform his magic. The room where my computer is located needed decorating throughout rather than a refresh that was needed in the other two rooms. The wall colour is much warmer and richer in colour than my photos show.

My computer was temporarily located in the living room which was not ideal for creative thinking (for blogging). Now my computer is back where it belongs, but as you can see the room is a work in progress. New carpet is on order and when Mr C and I have time we will take a trip to our local curtain shop.

But for now we have Christmas cards to make and post, trees to put up, one or two more presents to buy and finish planning our boxing day meal, working around numerous food allergies…

We had some complications along the way but both Christmas trees are finally up and decorated. As I was going to bed on Saturday evening I noticed that even though the heating was turned off it still appeared to be running. It is only a few weeks since we had a similar problem fixed. This meant we had to call out a service engineer to come and look at it, he phoned just as we were about to get the decorations down from the loft. This meant it was better to leave the decorations where they were until he called to fix the problem.

After he had departed we brought the decorations down and proceeded to set up the tree in the dining room which is at the front of our house. After the tree was put together it was time to drape the lights around the tree. We always check them spread out on the floor before putting them on the tree and they seemed to be working fine. However once they were draped around the tree one of the colours failed, which I suspected was terminal. Mr C fiddled with them on the tree and then at my request took them off again so they would be easier to check out. He changed the fuses and some of the bulbs and still they refused to work. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable about them and suggested that we used a spare set that we had.

One tree was adorned with the spare set of lights and decorations it was time to work on the tree in the sitting room which is at the back of the house. As I was assembling the tree Mr C looked for the lights which were nowhere to be found. He went up in the loft to see if he had left them up there by mistake. It was only when he came back down that I had the vague recollection of this set of lights failing last year. One of the colour strands had gone and as it was the type where the bulbs cannot be replaced we had binned it!! By this time it was too late to pop to the garden centre to pick up a new set up lights. That had to be done this evening and now the second tree is all sparkle and glow.

I have not had time to take any photographs yet so I will leave you with a couple from previous years.

Anon

My trees are now up and decorated a little earlier than usual leaving one less thing to worry about.  The Christmas day and Boxing day arrangements are also finalised so everything is eventually falling into place.  This left me with Sunday free to chill out.  I took the opportunity to visit Attingham park decked out as it would have been at Christmas during the 1920s.

Christmas, as the 8^th Lord and Lady Berwick would have done following their marriage in 1919. We have delved into the stores to find the Christmas decorations which are now adorning the dozen Christmas trees around the mansion. There is an amazing 15-foot tree in the Picture Gallery which is so big we had to use scaffolding to decorate it! Our lovely flower arrangers have also been “decking the halls” with festive greenery and flowers.

Lady Berwick loved parties and opening up her home for people to enjoy and this is what we want to evoke this year. To give the mansion the festive atmosphere of a 1920s Christmas we have brought out some of their personal clothing for you to see.

It was lovely to see the hall decorating in this way and tree in the gallery is amazing.  I liked the little brown parcels underneath, not at all like all the glitz we see today.  On the way home I took a slight detour via a garden centre to try and get a present, but came away empty handed apart from a few things for the Christmas festivities.  My Mum came round later and we enjoyed a nice roast beef dinner with a nice glass of red to accompany it.

All in all it was a good weekend

A Tannenbaum is a fir tree (die Tanne) or Christmas tree (der Weihnachtsbaum). Although most Christmas trees today are Fichten (spruce) rather than Tannen, the qualities of the evergreen have inspired musicians to write several “Tannenbaum” songs in German over the years. The best known version (above) was penned in 1824 by a Leipzig organist named Ernst Anschütz. The melody is an old folk tune. The first known “Tannenbaum” song lyrics date back to 1550. A similar 1615 song by Melchior Franck (1573-1639) goes: “Ach Tannebaum, ach Tannebaum, du bist ein edler Zweig! Du grünest uns den Winter, die lieben Sommerzeit.” – The English version above is a literal translation by your Guide, not the traditional English lyrics for the song. There are at least a dozen English versions of this carol.

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich
was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft
zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid
mich lehren.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!
Your boughs are green in summer’s clime
And through the snows of wintertime.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me when oft
at joyous Christmas-time
Your form inspires my song and rhyme.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.

I hope you all have a happy and peaceful Christmas