A cloudy morning and it rained quite heavily all night, but now the rain has disappeared and we have normal temperatures, nothing freezing. As I am probably not going anywhere until next week, it does not bother me so much. I am constantly thinking “have I got everything”. which reminds me I should remove the meat for this evening from the freezer – job done. Now just take it easy which is easier said than done. However, I should really not complain. It is a lot easier than it was when the four kids were still at home at Christmas. My parents were also usually here from England for a week and Swiss mother-in-law was also invited to the Christmas Eve dinner, which is the big evening of Christmas here. I did not realise it so much then, as I did not have the time to think about it. I cooked for 9 people and I remember already beginning during the afternoon to get everything ready. After the meal the kids got their gifts from under the tree, but not without doing a little presentation of Christmas poems to earn them or sing a few Christmas songs. It was just our custom at Christmas. That is the Christmas of the past, and now my son and his wife can continue with the customs. I can now relax, just cook for the close family at home and no big cooking ordeals.

I did my last trip to the store yesterday. From this evening all will be closed until next Monday, when the shopping chore begins again for the week. I noticed when entering that one of the assistants was positioned at the entrance and recording the entrances of the customers in the store. It is a smaller store than some others and they do not have a computerised entrance. There are now more people as everyone is getting the last minute items for the long Christmas holiday. The manager was standing next to her, who I had never seen before. He was a young guy and I had a few words with him. He was quite proud of his store, which is now about 2 years old. I told him I was also a very satisfied customer and they had everything I needed. It was just a shame they had no over the counter butchers. He told me that is only reserved for the larger branches, which is why I often go into town for my meat.

The magpies were quite active yesterday gathering their peanuts and other food and were flying back and forth most of the time.

The blue tits were also busy pecking on their goodies. This morning I had to fill up all the birdy meal plates and also open a fresh 5 kilo bag of seed which I hope will last the next week, which it should.

And now to get the rest of the day organised which is no great problem. I managed to change the bed linen yesterday, a day earlier, but I was not intending to let the washing machine run this evening. I now just have some ironing to do, but that does not bother me too much. I can always listen to some music whilst doing it.

I will probably be around during the day. Tomorrow I am not too sure, but I have no urgent appointments or chores, so I will probably be here now and again. So take it easy everyone and make the most of the Christmas holiday, although a little different than usual.