Tuesday, December 25, 2012

On The First Day of Christmas... Carole Matthews

On the first day of Christmas Carole Matthews add the first ornament to the RNA Christmas Tree...



My favourite decoration isn’t steeped in family history and it’s a very recent acquisition, but it will still hold lots of lovely memories for me.
     On a spectacularly rainy day last summer my partner, Lovely Kev, and I were lucky enough to have a tour of Prince Charles’ Highgrove Garden followed by a champagne afternoon tea. It was a fabulous day, a sunny opening in the clouds lasting just the required two hours for our walk round these beautiful grounds.
     Then, last week, we went to The Ritz hotel for the weekend on a quick pre-Christmas break . The break included a Highgrove Christmas shopping excursion to Clarence House, former residence of The Queen Mother and current home to Charles and Camilla and also Prince Harry. How could we resist a glimpse of that?
     The shopping was wonderful experience, conducted with plenty of champagne flowing and warm mince pies. Clarence House was resplendent in its festive garb and I was only disappointed that we weren’t allowed to take cameras in as I would have loved to have copied some of the ideas!
     The key to getting Lovely Kev to enjoy shopping is, I’ve discovered, give him lots of fizz beforehand. After a few drinks, nothing is too glittery to buy! Hurrah! So, among a million other things from the Highgrove Estate, we bought this pretty golden apple to remind us of our trip to both Clarence House and the marvellous gardens at Highgrove. I can’t wait to put it on the tree.


Carole's latest book...

Can the imperfect family really have the perfect Christmas?
Juliet Joyce adores Christmas.  She loves the presents, the tree, the turkey, the tinsel, everything. Already the festive spirit is upon her, which is just as well as this Christmas things are starting to get out of hand. Her son Tom is out of work and bringing home a slew of unsuitable partners; pregnant daughter Chloe and her little boy have moved back in; Juliet’s father, Frank, is getting over a heartbreak of his own and Rita, her eccentric mother, is behaving more erratically each day.  And has the chaos got too much for Juliet’s husband Rick?  With the big day fast approaching, Juliet hopes that she can stop everything spiralling out of control, because the only thing she wants is her family all around her and her home to be filled… WITH LOVE AT CHRISTMAS

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