Tuesday 29 Nov 2022 

post begun 0815hrs GMT 

OK, right, I have to announce my new daughter-in-law is AMAZING. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say 'new' because Fox had the good sense to fall in love with her in 2019, make it permanent in 2020, and my stunningly handsome and ultra intelligent youngest grandson was born in October 2021. She is an AMAZING mum. 

I freely admit I worried a bit at the start. She's considerably younger than Fox, she's got 'body art' - piercings, tats, and all that. It makes me a slight bit uncomfortable especially given my Jewish ancestry. Oh, yes I worried about Hepatitis and how she's going to feel about all that 'art' when she's my age. 

 

And she likes to use various 'bright' hair dyes - how does she do it, really? She did it in this fluorescent green recently - and on her it looked fabulous. She's had pink hair, orange hair, green hair - and on her it all looks wonderful.

 

Erm, her family seems a bit 'jugaloo'. Nice people when you get to know them but, yeah, a bit on the jugaloo side in appearance at least. I calm my fears telling myself they have 'an interesting approach to life' and 'They mean well'. And her gran (on her dad's side) is yer basic SouthEast Alabama farm girl, Christian values, common sense, and that is a comforting thing - acorns don't fall all that far from trees, her son and grands only look jugaloo.

My dil is doing a fabulous job of being a wife and mum and step-mum to an 18yo, I'm not sure I could have managed it as well had I been in that situation. She works full-time as a restaurant manager on top of everything else. 

AMAZING lass, I'm over-the-moon with my 'new' dil. 

Other news - First Sunday of Advent was 27th November. The wreath went up on the door, the candle bridge is in the front window. The baubles are about to go on the tree and Christmas music is on continuous loop in my head. 

 

We hit a bit of a hiccup trying to get the lights going on the front garden four potted evergreens - we're using battery lights owing to the shocking cost of electricity this year and I realised too late for the annual 'switch-on' Sunday night I don't have enough rechargeable batteries to run those lights (and the ones inside the house as well). 

 

I suggested to Paul perhaps given the current 'cost of lockdown crisis' that has the Sheriff of Nottingham (Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and yes even I have to be careful to avoid using the Cockney slang for that rat bastard) putting us all on Austerity v2.0, maybe we should forgo the outdoor lights this year?

 

We put a decision on the garden lights on hold until Monday.

He is usually (ahem) a bit on the overly-frugal side but when I again mentioned the austerity thing yesterday morning, he had his coat on and was back in a flash from the ironmonger with plenty of batteries to get us through the Christmas season. I have to say those lights are a cheery sight out there. 

 

The cold is creeping up on us all up here in NE Scotland, we've had light AND hard frosts, Indian Summer a distant faint memory, and snow will likely be falling here in the next day or two. I spent the summer using up my 4W autumnal colour yarn for blankets - I have to say those blankets are stunning and nicely warm. Now I'm working on new 5W winter blankets in a different but equally warm stitch. 

 

Keeping a 'mindless' crochet blanket project going year round means my Essential Tremor is calmed a bit - by the time I've got a few rows on the shaking nearly completely stops for hours (not that I could hold a tea cup on a saucer without rattles to beat the band even after an hour or so crocheting but heigh ho). 

 

My 'long-covid' is FINALLY fading - I can taste food again (oh thank goodness!), I can look at foods in magazines and online without thinking 'where's the sick bag?!', and I can look at photos of heights without wanting to lie down and close my eyes. Far better, I can now walk a fair distance without angina and breathlessness, and the housework is less 'do only what is absolutely required' and more 'I'm going to reorganise that cupboard today'. 

 

Off now to start decorating the Christmas tree. Post completed 0909 hours.

 

SEASONS GREETINGS!!