Day 318: All yule need

We went to our local DIY emporium today to find that Christmas has arrived in anger. Sorry! the holidays have arrived in anger. I wouldn't be surprised if even the inflatable Nativity scenes are called "Holiday family and animals" on the tickets. Ah well, as I have said before, I am not uptight about the secular festival of Xmas or 'the holidays', although I hope that Christmas will break through into our lives when the time comes around.

Our trip was successful in that I have solved a few niggling jobs around the house and we also popped into Staples and I've since put a cork noticeboard up in the kitchen to relieve the stress on the fridge magnets.

Afterwards we had a sandwich - in fact Exile #2 and I went for the classic US combination of soup + a half-sandwich. Exile #4's eclectic tastes showed with several stolen spoonfuls of Broccoli and Cheddar and (my choice) a spicy Black Bean soup. At some point every else was sitting on the other side of the table from me and I can't afford to miss these photo opportunities these days - even when only armed with my mobile phone.