It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

 

Christmas will be pretty quiet here with just the three of us.  Not that unusual really and it’s what Paul prefers. I’d rather have a big family get together but that would have been ill-advised this year anyway.  I have managed pre-Christmas meetings with two of my sisters. At the beginning of the month I risked a trip to a Market Harborough on a very crowded train to visit my youngest sister and her family.  It’s a lovely town with a lot of independent shops and hardly any empty ones.  On the Friday night of my visit they’d had a Christmas Fayre and it seemed much more of a community event than the more commercialised Christmas market in Chester.  The kids are now old enough to go off with their friends so Chris, Pam and I were free to explore, drink mulled wine and eat very pricey but delicious pulled pork baps.  Outside the church the local group had created a Christmas tree made up of crocheted squares to raise money for a homeless charity.  I loved it - my mother used to made blankets like these. On the Saturday we went back into town for lunch and a bit of shopping and I took this photo of Pamela with the crochet tree. 

Then last Friday Diane and husband Steve from down south near Brighton came to visit for the day. We changed our original plan to meet in Liverpool and instead had lunch here and then went to Chester’s Christmas market.  More mulled wine or in fact spiced rum for me - it was a bit chilly.  We had a walk around the cathedral where Christmas trees decorated by local firms and schools are on display.

So now I am just waiting for Kate to return home - she’s driving back from Sheffield today.  Poor Kate - she’s been in isolation because she tested positive for Covid, missing the last week and a half of her teaching practice.  No symptoms at all but not much fun being stuck in her little room until the rest of her household went home at the end of term for Christmas.  She’s not been on her own as her boyfriend has stayed there with her.  He’s also had it - no doubt infected her in the first place- though he’s now out of isolation. My niece in London also now isolating over Christmas.  No idea if it’s this new Omicron they’ve had but not good whatever it is.  We’re being extra cautious though I did risk a garden gathering on Monday evening which didn’t please Paul, who prefers to live like a hermit anyway. 

Happy Christmas!