Wow!  It doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago that I was writing my last month’s update.  It’s been a very busy month at work, at home and in MHWI land.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy and yet felt so content.  I love Christmas.  I love the shopping and the wrapping.  (My sister has told me this week that I should be in charge at Fort Knox, apparently my parcel taping skills are exemplary and there was no way she was getting in!). I love the lights and decorations, in my world there can never be too much tinsel.  I love party food and wine, obviously.  I love going to church and singing carols from the depths of my diaphragm and watching the kids nativity.

This year I have also been on the back of the Scout Santa Sleigh a couple of times with my fun-loving Fiona Thompson.  What fabulous evenings we had.  Not only were we bringing joy to the children, but I was struck by how excited the elderly were to see Santa and meet us “elves” and have a little chat, a little contact.  In all the fuss of family, shopping, work and life in general, it’s easy to forget there are people who are alone and not really looking forward to the festive period.

And then there was another MHWI committee meeting and the preparations for our Christmas Bash!  Boy, are we going to have fun tonight.  The raffle is AMAZING!  So much so that we are charging £1 a ticket.  The committee also decided as part or our “caring and sharing” mission, we will be donating from the proceeds to Market Harborough Young Carers to help fund a trip to the theatre after Christmas!  Such a worthy bunch of people to be supporting, so make sure you buy a strip of tickets and you may walk away with one of our super prizes.

The prizes have been donated by MHWI and local independent businesses (See here).  I hope you all supported our independent shops on Small Business Saturday.  I have always tried to shop in Harborough first before resorting to my beloved internet.  We have such a fabulous amount of independent retailers in town and I am always discovering little gems that can provide gifts that are just a little different from the norm.

At this point I must thank the fastidious committee who always step up to meet a challenge and managed to procure the raffle prizes.  I also challenged them to “titivate” the envelopes following a few sips of mulled wine!  So check out the bling and string of your creative committee at the MHWI meeting on Wednesday 17th December.

Our MHWI committee meeting was a huge amount of fun, and yes, the mulled wine did flow and mince pies were munched.  This did not stop our usual meeting, though Fiona had to bring us back on track a few times when we got carried away!  There are some incredible ideas for next years centenary celebrations.

Our first announcement, that has already gone out on the website, is that the Mikron Theatre Company are coming to perform in Market Harborough.  The play is called “Raising Agents” and is a comedy about the WI.  We are really lucky to have secured a fixture as they tour the country on a barge along the canal network. If you would like to get involved with organising this event, please let Fiona Thompson know.

There will be other Centenary Events that will be announced shortly, so watch the website and social media for information and please come forward to help with the organising of individual events.  The more help there is the bigger and better each event will be.  AND if YOU have an amazing idea, come and let us know!

We are going to kick off the centenary year with a top 100 household tips.  So get your thinking caps on.  What quirky little time saver can you share?  For example, my top tip is :

Having washed, ironed (if you’re so inclined!) and folded your freshly laundered bed linen, put all the relevant bits for the bed neatly folded inside one of the pillowcases. This means that there is no scrabbling in the airing cupboard on bed change day to find the right sized sheet and the second pillowcase which thinks it’s an elusive sock!  Ta dah!!