Getting ready for Christmas, Last day of posting UK and International and Postcards of Kindness

It's so nice to actually spend Christmas now in one place and not have to worry about ensuring gifts are bought and delivered in mid September before leaving the UK for winter and returning to either South Africa or Dubai.

Our son in Australia will be getting cash only this year, which I'll transfer in December. Our eldest son, his wife and 4 year old grandchild will be spending Christmas with us and we'll see our daughter nearer the day to drop her gifts off. 

Mum will be coming to stay between Christmas and the New Year and there will somehow be a visit with MIL in Keynsham fitted in also.

However there was still family in Northern Ireland to arrange with our son, his wife and our grandson, plus the parent in laws and I started shopping in September and finished wrapping mid October to take over with us last month to guarantee it all arrives safely. 

All the shopping has been done now, finishing off the last few bits and pieces while we've been away the previous couple of weekends. Everything is now wrapped and under the tree.

I do December 1st gifts for our niece, 5 great nephews, 3 great nieces as well as our 2 grandchildren which involve an item of Christmas clothing and additional treats for the grandchildren to include crafts and advent calendars. They'll be delivered in the next few days, so they can get some wear out of them over the festive period.

We've also posted gifts to people we don't get to see much of and we've started dropping off gifts with family and friends as we go out and about.

Christmas card making and writing has been done in the evenings and all was posted last weekend. We have family and friends in Australia, USA, Canada, Germany and South Africa to send to also.

I also take part with Postcards of Kindness and will be sending cards to care and nursing homes in the UK for Christmas.

The Christmas decorations went up last week.

I also held a wreath making get together last week, organised by a colleague at work and we had a lot of fun and it's nice to have something I made up at the front door.

Last card/letter posting for Christmas. (2nd Class)

International Standard World Wide up to 100g £2.20 Tuesday 5 December	Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Australia, Caribbean, China (People’s Republic), Far and Middle East, New Zealand
Wednesday 6 December	Cyprus and Malta
Thursday 7 December	Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic and Poland), France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey
Friday 8 December	Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, USA

United Kingdom Monday 18 December

2nd Class                    75p