Merry And Bright And Cold

We stumbled about a ferociously cold garden centre this morning, gasping at the prices and vastness of most of the Christmas trees until we could manage it no longer, and heaved a smallish 'Serbian spruce' in a pot onto a trolley, added a snow shovel for good measure, and went to the till where I'm happy to say we got change from £25! Tomorrow morning we'll do the decorating. There are already lovely little red and white lights adorning the dresser in the kitchen and we ate lebkuchen with our tea this afternoon. 'Walking in a winter wonderland' is earworm of the day after hefty exposure at the garden centre. All in all it must be Christmas. I've even written almost all my cards. Certainly all the ones that require posting. I think... Actually I've just remembered one more...

Ice is everywhere. Little icicles dangle off the bottom of everyone's car, and all yesterday's puddles are solid. No more snow though, as it's been a wonderfully bright and sunny day. I've pulled out of various things I was supposed to be doing to give myself more rest and recuperation time. Still going out to eat at the home of friends just down the road tonight, and welcoming friends from even closer by to eat with us tomorrow. My friend J is coming over tomorrow afternoon as well. And there's a Christmas concert at the local Baptist-chapel-now-community-music-venue just along the road in our village on Sunday afternoon. Sounds like quite enough, so I am pleased with my decision not to meet the poets today and not to meet the therapists tomorrow (which involved a lot of travelling), though I'm sad not to see all these people before Christmas. Still, it is true I still don't feel 100% well, so that has to be what guides my choices for now.