Ella:

Time seemed to be flying with just under a week left for Christmas. I had started tidying the house up since advent. The curtains and bedsheets were changed with fresh linen, carpets vacuumed till every speck of dirt had vanished. Today after dinner, I would start reassembling the artificial Christmas tree stored in the attic.

I miss the days when Dad and I would go hunting with an axe for evergreen conifers, normally a spruce tree. We’d load our stash at the back of our car and stop for a cup of hot chocolate at a nearby café. Although I made a decent Christmas spread, Mum’s turkey and gravy...