Starting to feel truly Christmassy...

I actually spent most of this evening (when I was supposed to be translating around 2,000 words of a nasty nuclear energy text I have to finish for the beginning of January) wrapping presents. Oh, how I love wrapping presents! And although I'm no Martha Stewart (should have seen the visual disaster that was the cake I made on Sunday, though it actually tasted fabulous), I have to say I think I wrap presents pretty well...

Didn't even finish, to be honest - I "only" wrapped the girls' presents from us (not the bicycles, obviously, but a bicycle pump for C and a pack of stabilisers for L, as sort of hints as to what might be awaiting in the cellar) and from Father Christmas (he was running short of time and asked me to do some wrapping for him. Elves must have been either drunk or on strike again I guess as the same thing happened last year...). Of course, the fact that I don't actually have anything to wrap for D is only a minor hurdle (last minute shopping tomorrow, I guess). And I haven't wrapped my MIL's presents, either, as she won't be here till the 25th anyway.

Plus D did lots of Christmas food shopping this afternoon, and the girls and I (though mainly I, with some help from C) did a fair amount of tidying. Of course, not enough for it to be visible to anyone but me, but it's a start, and I intend to do more tomorrow (though I'm not sure when - so much to do!).

And, somewhat unbelievably, there will be 10 of us for dinner tomorrow night (yes, here in France the "big" Christmas meal is on Christmas Eve. But the four of us will also be doing a "UK" Christmas lunch, too, on the 25th, after we've opened all the presents), and I HAVE TO ROAST SOME KIND OF BIRD. I've NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE. AM VERY SCARED OF RUINING EVERYTHING. But well. I guess we'll manage. And if the bird (it's a "pintade", which is apparently a guinea fowl) is truly inedible, we've got loads of tuna fish to fall back on...

The only downer in the whole proceedings (apart from the fact that I got no work done today) is the fact that I suspect my poor sweet L may indeed be falling foul (or should that be fowl?) of the chicken pox plague that hit her part of the school last week... She's got a few spots that are itchy, and her poor little forehead feels hot to me, so I fear the worst. Poor baby - chicken pox for Christmas... She's going to be so miserable - I know I was when I had it. But we'll see. Maybe it's just a very enthusiastic mosquito (yes, we've still got mosquitos - I blitzed one gleefully yesterday) or something...

OK. It's now 1 am (so still pretty early by my standards), so I guess I should try and get some work done... Or at least finish making my Christmas cards...