Farewell to 2025

 It is fair to say that 2025 held it's fair share of good times and bad and I am definitely not going to take good times for granted in the next year!

So how did December pan out?

There was a fair amount of socialising which is lovely but I did seem to cram it all into the first ten days of the month and at one point I had been out for meals three days in a row which is not good for my waistline! 

The Christmas tree was decorated (much to Coco's disgust as it is standing in the corner that she likes to lie in after dinner in the evenings), cards were written and a nativity show was watched.  Of course I cried when the angels came on stage, I always do, but even more so this year as Rosie entered the hall dressed up in her long white dress and tinsel halo. Gingerbread houses were decorated 

The start of the process showing an artistic interpretation of Father Christmas climbing up a roof, (you need to use your imagination 😆) and by the end of the process every icing tube had been used, every sweet stuck on and quite a lot of mess was made.

The Christmas cake was more subtle using vintage decorations that once belonged to my mum.

I lost count of the number of times I went food shopping; how much food do you really need for two full days of entertaining?

We had Rachel and her children here for Christmas Day and Jon and his family joined in on Boxing Day.  It was very tiring but lovely to gather everyone together.  The children are now all of an age where they can play together and it made my heart sing to watch them all having fun.

It's been nice to have a few days to relax and have the house to ourselves after the lead up to Christmas as well as the days themselves.  I have to own up to having a two hour nap on the day after Boxing Day, I was exhausted!  I wasn't the only one  ...

The leftover food has been used up and I am trying hard to resist the call of the boxes of chocolate.  Sometimes more successfully than others 😉 Thankfully Coco is feeling back to normal and has enthusiastically come with us for long morning walks. While out with her this morning, a fellow dog walker stopped for a chat and as Coco greeted her dog she asked us 'Is she a puppy?' and was genuinely surprised when we told her she was fourteen and a half!  

Thank you for reading over the last year, I do appreciate it and hope you will continue to visit in 2026.

Let's look over the last 31 days, 1 Second Everyday

Time has flown!

I seem to have blinked and suddenly weeks have passed! I blame it on the time of year 🎄 

So what have I been up to since I was last writing a blog post?  There's been a hair cut, quite a lot of childcare, Pilates classes, Zumba classes, we hosted an Indian takeaway meal for three other couples, watched Leo play in two football matches, had a meal out with friends who we first met when we went to antenatal classes 39 years ago, decorated the house for Christmas, enjoyed a meal out with the ladies I used to work with,followed the next day by a meal out with my Knit and Natter group, celebrated my cousin's husband's 60th birthday with an afternoon tea also with my sister and her husband, wrote and sent Christmas cards, watched Rosie's nativity play, went for a birthday meal with Paul and yesterday hosted a family celebration for his birthday.  Let me share the November 1 Second Everyday roundup that I should have posted last week!

So yes, it has been busy time but we are finished with all the going out socialising now and have a quiet few days before the big event.  This afternoon I have set aside for Christmas wrapping while watching a Christmas film.  

Can you guess how excited our grandchildren were when this passed by our house just as they were going home last night?

It’s definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

A better week for Coco

 Our dog has caused more than her share of drama in the last 10 days. After I published last Monday's post I discovered that she had been given the wrong strength medication.  Three times what it should have been!  No wonder she had felt better quickly. Fortunately it wasn't too drastic, it just meant that she had been on the highest level of 300g rather than the normal level of 100g. It just means we have to wean her off them a little slower.  She will have her last tablet tomorrow and then we need to see how she is. 

There's been much excitement in the family as Rosie celebrated her 7th birthday.  She was SO excited, and was awake at 4am ready to start the day with a bang.  She was soon sent back to bed to try and get a couple more hours sleep!  She had her party at a local craft centre on Saturday with the theme of KPop Demon Hunters which meant that our daughter had to spend much of the morning weaving in a very thick, long purple plait into her hair and then spray dying her own hair purple.  It looked fab and she looked great in her fancy dress outfit.  So, now the next exciting thing is Christmas!

Are you organised?  I am not at all.  I have only bought two presents so far.  I need to get in the zone and decide what I'm going to buy everyone!  Maybe I'll begin with getting some wrapping paper and cards to start the ball rolling. Or maybe my first job will be to start making list of what needs to be done/bought/cooked, I do like a list!

What a week!

 Have you heard the expression 'that was a game of two halves'?  Where a situation changes quite dramatically in a short space of time. Well that sums up my last week.

First the good part where I met my pen friend in London. We had such a lovely day and the weather could not have been more perfect (and unlike a typical British November day!) We met at the Eros statue in Picadilly Circus, then walked down to Trafalgar Square.  Had a gluhwein at a German Christmas market, walked down to the Millenium Bridge, enjoying the sights as we walked from one side of the Thames to the other. We found a lovely traditional British pub for lunch.  Then we went through Borough Market and wandered around that area in the afternoon before reluctantly saying goodbye and going our separate ways.  It was SO lovely to see her and her husband and the hours just flew by.  I even got to see some places I'd never visited before, like China Town!

But the next day was definitely not so good.  Coco had us awake at 4am trying to go downstairs but unable to manage the steps.  I had to go and pick her up and in my half sleep and without wearing my glasses I stupidly tried to carry her downstairs.  I got about four steps from the bottom when I overbalanced (it's not easy carrying 10kgs of dog when you're not really awake) and slipped down the rest of the stairs.  I let her out in the garden but something was obviously wrong with her.  We made an urgent appointment with the vet as soon as they opened and rang Rachel to let her know that we were seriously worried about her.  She immediately got in the car to come over - Coco was originally her dog - and the three of us drove to the vets.  

The vet said she was in a lot of pain in her back but she seemed otherwise to be in good health so would we like to try to medicate her to see if it were nerve related.  She couldn't say what was causing it and to find out exactly what it was would require an MRI which she would not recommend as it would require anesthesia which you want to avoid in an elderly dog. By now all three of us are in tears as we honestly thought we were going to have to make a big decision that we didn't want to make. If the medication didn’t help we would have no option but to make that decision.

So she is now on a couple of strong painkillers and anti inflammatory pills and thankfully she seems to be responding to them.  It has been a hell of a weekend desperately hoping to see an improvement.

Here’s hoping she continues to respond to her tablets and that her poor back feels better soon. It’s been a horrible weekend, watching her every move and we must have cried pints of tears on Friday. Keep improving, Coco 😘

An exciting week ahead

 I have something really good on my calendar for later this week.  When I was 10 I belonged to The Monkees fan club - I loved Davy Jones!  There was an article in the fan club magazine asking if people wanted a pen pal and I signed up straight away.  I was matched with a girl called Cindy who lived in Chicago and we are still in touch today, 57 years later!  We have met three times and on Thursday we will be meeting up again.  She is visiting London on her way to join a cruise ship in Southampton and has a day free when Paul and I are going to go into London to meet up with her and her husband.  How exciting!!! 

In other news, I finished the sweater I was crocheting

So I am now starting a new project which will be a blanket for Rosie.  The chenille yarn is ordered and I am keen to get going on it.  One of the great bonuses about joining my Knit and Natter group is that as well as making new friends, it is encouraging me to always have a project on the go.

I ordered some new glasses a couple of weeks ago and they are now ready to collect so I am looking forward to that.  I haven't needed a new prescription for four years so I am kind of fed up with these frames, I have definitely had my money's worth out of them!  Glasses are so expensive around here.  I need to have varifocals and the actual lens costs about double the cost of the frames.  Every time I go they mention the fact that I have the beginnings of cataracts but they aren't bad enough to operate on at the moment.  I'm in no hurry as I am squeamish about eyes.  You know the test they do for glaucoma where they puff a jet of air into your eye?  I cannot stop myself from jolting backwards when they do that, it's a good job the chair isn't on wheels or I'd be bouncing off the wall!

I hope you have a good week planned.  I'm already thinking about what we are going to do in London, I'm sure the time will fly by and don't want to waste a minute!  I'll report back next week.

It's been a while ...

 It's been many a week since I've written anything other than book reviews here and I'm tentatively writing a new post with good intentions to get back into the swing of blogging.

I've withdrawn into hibernation mode for various reasons and have spent more time that usual supporting our daughter who is going through a very stressful time at the moment.  That of course is shorthand for increased child care duties!

October included the half term holidays in this area and as our daughter's new job involves working in London for a couple of days a week, those child care days started early and ended late!  Then of course we had our other grandchildren for a whole day together.  By the end of that week we were shattered and in need of a day out on our own to Cambridge.  John Lewis is already in the Christmas spirit and I must confess to getting a few stocking filler presents.

There was a birthday celebration for our youngest grandchild, Olive, who has hit the dizzy heights of four.  She is very proud of that fact and will tell everyone she meets that she is not three anymore.  Her birthday party on Saturday had a halloween/Moana theme to it as she couldn't decide what she wanted to dress up as.  The cake was definitely on the side of Moana, look what a lovely design our daughter in law made for her.

Leo is fanatical about his football now and I can't resist his little face when he asks me 'will you be coming to watch the match on Saturday Nanny?' so we seem to be standing on the windswept sidelines for every home game.  That takes me back to many a cold morning watching our son 25 years ago!

My 'knit and natter' group organised a night out a couple of weeks ago.  We met for a meal at an Italian restaurant and then went to see the 'Jersey Beats' show at our local arts centre.  It was such good fun.  Meanwhile our husbands met up for a curry at an Indian restaurant in town. I always forget how many hits Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had and must confess to singing along for most of the evening.

Talking of 'knitting and nattering' - or in my case - crocheting and chatting, I started making a ripple cardigan a while ago as a project to take with me on Fridays and it is nearly finished.  All will be revealed when it is finished.

Here is the video of October, 1 Second Everyday

My book list for October

 I started off the month with the book chosen by my online book club

The book is set in 1963 and introduces us to Barbara Feldman who is bringing up two children single handed following the death of her husband two years earlier.  It has been hard to come to terms with her widowhood but she is finally feeling as if things are settling into a new normal.

That is, until her mother in law turns up on her doorstep, suitcases in hand, and announces that she has come to 'help'.  Barbara feels she has no alternative but to invite her in but it soon becomes clear that Ruth is intending to stay much longer than a couple of weeks.  Barbara sympathises with her as Ruth is widowed herself and has now also lost her son.  But sympathy can wear a little thin as Ruth decides to stamp her own mark on the family.

Barbara decides that the only way to entice Ruth out of her home is to find her a husband, but it seems that this idea is also on Ruth's mind - no one will ever replace her son but Barbara would surely be happier with a new man in her life.

The story was a bit predictable and you do have to remind yourself that it is set in the early 60s when a woman's life was quite different to how it is now but it was amusing to see the relationship between Barbara and Ruth evolves.

Of course I then found myself missing the Seven Sisters series and before I knew it I had downloaded the third book which tells the story of Star.

Star has always lived in the shadow of her overprotective sister Ce-Ce, to the extent of losing her independence and Ce-Ce assuming that Star will always want what she wants and that they cannot be separated.  But the loss of their father has affected Star in a way no one would have expected.  She doesn't want to have Ce-Ce deciding where they will live or where they will work. Who knew that there would be a tiny rebellious streak about to unfold.

She plucks up the courage to read the clues she was left and finds that her story begins in England.  The first part of her story involves an old bookshop which just happens to be very close to where Ce-Ce has bought their first apartment together.  Star quickly develops a friendship with Orlando, the owner of the shop, and is introduced to his brother 'Mouse', sister Marguerite, and nephew Rory.

When I learnt that part of Star's story would involve the Lake District and associations with Beatrix Potter, I just knew it was going to interesting and I like it when I have been to a location in the story as I can vividly visualise the setting.

By the end of the book I viewed the relationship between Ce-Ce and Star in a very different way.  I had always had the impression that one of the girls was heavily dependant on the other but as I learnt more about them, I realised that this was not the case at all.

The different strands of Star's story were very cleverly entwined and naturally I now want to read the next book in the series. Each book can be read on its own so you don't need to feel that you have to read them all after you have read the first, but I am now so invested in the individual stories of the sisters and want to know them all!