Festive In Framlingham

I wrote last week that, after a delayed start, we were getting into the Christmas spirit here (or at least Marion was). Marion loves Christmas and loves thinking about what to buy for everyone and she puts an enormous effort into making things very Christmassy. She's been incredibly busy but finally finished wrapping all of the presents last night. I'm very lucky - all I have had to do is sign a lot of labels. We got the last of the presents this morning as we drove out towards Orford to pick up some special local delicacies that we're including in a couple of the presents.

I say we got the last of the presents but that's not quite right. We ordered three very nice and quite expensive presents on the internet in October and November. I can't say what they are in case the recipients read this. Despite promise after promise none has arrived. There are two companies involved. Before ordering from the first we phoned and emailed to check that the item was in stock but after paying and receiving confirmation we were then told the item was not in stock but a special order and had to be made BUT "don't worry, you'll definitely have it for Christmas". The second is a new product that we paid for in early October. We were quoted 19 November for delivery but email after email has come telling us that it has been delayed but "don't worry, you'll definitely have it for Christmas".

We keep telling the suppliers that we don't want them "for Christmas" but before we head off north where the recipients will be but nobody seems to be able to say exactly where the goods are and when they will be with us. As both are specialist items we can't just cancel and reorder from elsewhere. All I know is that it this had happened when we were in business we would have bent over backwards to make sure that our customers knew exactly what was going on and when it would be put right. With just two days to go before we head off I'm pretty sure that two people on our list will be without presents which is a real shame after we put such a lot of effort into getting something special for them.

Marion always has a second smaller Christmas tree on which she hangs all the baubles and decorations made by our kids when they were little. She's now adding ones made by the grandchildren and was thrilled to get a beautifully painted pair of birds from Catherine yesterday.

Here's one of them. Catherine is so artistic for just just under eighteen months old. I'm sure that she'll end up doing something very creative.

We're also looking forward to getting this bauble which Sarah had imprinted with baby Melody's footprint. There will soon be so many that we'll need to buy a bigger tree next year.