It's a well known fact that I get very overexcited about Christmas and in particular the run up to Christmas. David resigns himself to his annual trip to B&Q on the 1st December, where he reluctantly adopts the role of Chief Christmas Tree Holder-Upper, while I ummm and ahhhhh over selecting the perfect tree. Last year, I made the mistake of handing the decision making process over to David and we ended up with a tree so large we struggled to cram ourselves into his Landrover with it. Decorating it also proved a challenge as we only had enough baubles and fairy lights for our usual sensibly selected 5 foot tree as opposed to this spindly 8 foot monstrosity - proving biggest is not always best and certain tasks are best left to the girls.
Besides decorating the tree, daubing our entire house with gaudy tinsel and twinkly lights, and filling the air with generous squirts of M&S' festive room spray, I dust down the 'Now that's what I call Christmas' CD. While singing at the top of my voice to the original Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas', I'll crack open the first of many bottles of M&S mulled wine. David will return from work each night to find that once more M&S party food is on the menu for dinner. Ever the long-suffering husband, he will feign excitement at mini-steak and kidney pies, pork belly on toothpicks and brie and cranberry bites washed down with a glass of Baileys, silently willing January to hurry up and arrive.
Once the house is decorated, the Christmas music is blasting, and the microwave is pinging repeatedly in time, the Christmas parties start. With our rapidly expanding waistlines, we don our meticulously chosen party outfits, which seem a bit tighter than when we had last tried them on. Joining our work colleagues we hastily force alcohol and food down our throats like foie gras geese, before demonstrating our questionable dancing skills. Then wake up the following morning full of drunken remorse, brooding over what we may have said and done the night before.
This year is different though. It is 9th December and there is nothing in our flat to indicate that Christmas is fast approaching. We have no tree and no fairy lights. I have only indulged in a couple of Starbucks' gingerbread lattes, and not a single M&S canape has passed my lips. I haven't even bought a party outfit as my diary is bereft of Christmas parties. Somehow Christmas isn't Christmas for me in 20 degrees and sunshine. Mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas carols don't seem the same when they aren't shared and enjoyed beside a log fire with friends and family. But only 4 more sleeps and I'm back home in the UK and Christmas can commence.....
In the meantime, here are a selection of Hong Kong's very stylish Christmas decorations to get everyone in the festive spirit....
Besides decorating the tree, daubing our entire house with gaudy tinsel and twinkly lights, and filling the air with generous squirts of M&S' festive room spray, I dust down the 'Now that's what I call Christmas' CD. While singing at the top of my voice to the original Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas', I'll crack open the first of many bottles of M&S mulled wine. David will return from work each night to find that once more M&S party food is on the menu for dinner. Ever the long-suffering husband, he will feign excitement at mini-steak and kidney pies, pork belly on toothpicks and brie and cranberry bites washed down with a glass of Baileys, silently willing January to hurry up and arrive.
Once the house is decorated, the Christmas music is blasting, and the microwave is pinging repeatedly in time, the Christmas parties start. With our rapidly expanding waistlines, we don our meticulously chosen party outfits, which seem a bit tighter than when we had last tried them on. Joining our work colleagues we hastily force alcohol and food down our throats like foie gras geese, before demonstrating our questionable dancing skills. Then wake up the following morning full of drunken remorse, brooding over what we may have said and done the night before.
This year is different though. It is 9th December and there is nothing in our flat to indicate that Christmas is fast approaching. We have no tree and no fairy lights. I have only indulged in a couple of Starbucks' gingerbread lattes, and not a single M&S canape has passed my lips. I haven't even bought a party outfit as my diary is bereft of Christmas parties. Somehow Christmas isn't Christmas for me in 20 degrees and sunshine. Mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas carols don't seem the same when they aren't shared and enjoyed beside a log fire with friends and family. But only 4 more sleeps and I'm back home in the UK and Christmas can commence.....
In the meantime, here are a selection of Hong Kong's very stylish Christmas decorations to get everyone in the festive spirit....
The Landmark
Pacific Place
Tai O Heritage Hotel
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