This year instead of taking all the decorations down in one fell swoop I have decided to dismantle Christmas one shelf at a time. Quite literally, one shelf or one category. Today was the turn of the Christmas cards. There weren't that many, Alan has the ones from the neighbours at his house, I have the ones from my boys and brother. Mum didn't write any this year, so the one she sent me last year went up instead. Once again I kept my favourites and they will go up again next year, why not decorate with favourites and recycle any others.
I treated myself to a pack of three notebooks the other day. I had called into the supermarket for some cat milk, Ginger is addicted, and there they were near the checkouts begging me with their prettiness to buy them. One final treat for Christmas I told myself ... any excuse for a stationery purchase eh!! 😄
It was time to get a different sort of card in the post the other day. Alan and Mavis walked to the sorting office post box to try and make sure it gets there on time. Our great-grandson is six on the 31st of December ... gosh how they make you feel old, all this growing up so fast. 💖
Today is Sunday and we are off to visit Mum again and although I look forward to seeing her, I am sick and tired of the M6, the M61 and the M60. The same journey two or three times a week every week since March has made for a lot of journeys racking up the mileage on Alan's car. The only good journeys we have had were on Christmas Day when we managed to do both directions in the hour that Google Maps says we should be able to do it in.
She's worth it.
Oh and finally ... a Happy Birthday to my ex-husband, 69 today!!
Sue xx
We have visitors tomorrow and then I am definitely clearing away Christmas decorations. Safe journey and hope you have a good visit with your Mum. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIt was a nice visit thanks. ❤️
DeleteSafe journeys,Sue
ReplyDeleteThank you. ❤️
DeleteI hope you and your mum enjoy the visit.
ReplyDeleteShe seemed to. We watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and took her some saved old cards and photos to look through.
DeleteFrom one stationery addict to another - lovely little books! 😅
ReplyDeleteI also went back to normal food yesterday, 3 days of 'nice bits' is quite enough thank you. Hope you have a decent journey and a good visit to Mum.
The roads were busy, but it was all free-flowing, which makes a huge difference. 😀
DeleteHope your journey is swift again.
ReplyDeleteIt used to take an hour from the smallholding to visit my Mum and it was only 40 miles - cross country roads in Suffolk aren't speedy!
It wasn't bad, we were pleasantly surprised. 😀
DeleteAll my Christmas stuff is now packed away - but then there wasn't much really, I'm very minimalist with it. Lovely notebooks - I'm just about to start using one of the several I brought home from Mum's when we went up there to clear out her room last month. Why she had so many I don't know, she must have bought them every time she went shopping! I hope your journey is quick and uneventful, hopefully the roads should be relatively low traffic. Enjoy your time with your Mum xx
ReplyDeleteIt was very busy but nicely free-flowing, except for where the queue built up to exit the motorway for the Trafford Centre. Obviously shoppers were out in force. 😀
DeleteThe last "nice bit" (choc. roulade) eaten for breakfast this morning - Tam and I shared it. I too am looking forward to plainer fare and it will be Something With Mince for tea tonight. Spag. Bol perhaps.
ReplyDeleteTam is going home a day late so only this afternoon will I be able to start a big tidy up. G's Lip Balm lost on Christmas Day; some special photos we meant to show her, put "somewhere safe" - so safe, they are now lost. Those "useful boxes" can go out in the stables and I will have another burn up of wrappings. That sounds like a long M-way journey to visit your mum, but she's worth it, as you say.
'Safe places' are lethal aren't they, they are where important things go to hide until you no longer need them. 😄
DeleteAre you on good terms with him? 69, wow!
ReplyDeleteYes, we're on good terms, he gets on well with Alan too. I know ... 69 sounds old doesn't it, but his two brothers are in their 70s so he's still the 'baby' of the trio. 😄
DeleteThe roads and motorways are certainly getting busier over time. Our journey to see my mum is M62, M1, A1M, A168 then A19, a trip of 90 miles and, with a short stop to relieve my back, about 3 hours as it takes us around 40 minutes alone to get from our house to the motorway with queues everywhere and sometimes when we reach the M62 it is stationary. Then when we leave mums she always rings us about an hour later to see if we are home (I wish)! Even though I tell her it is 3 hour journey she thinks we are just down the road.
ReplyDeleteIt is so tiring, so I can understand how tiring it is for you going so often.
Lovely notebooks that you found - I am already making lists for 2025 - I have not removed any decorations though, they were late going up so I aim to get the pleasure of them a little while longer.
Mum's exactly the same, she has lost all perception of time and distance. Mind you even my brother has been known to phone while we are only halfway home thinking we will be there already.
DeleteOur decs will come down before new year for sure. I love your pretty notebooks.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
I do like to start the New Year with clear and clean surfaces. 😀
DeleteI hope your drive wasn't too stressful and your mum was in good spirits!
ReplyDeleteJon loves his stationery, too.
Happy Birthday to your Great Grandson and your Ex. I'm still friends with a few of my exes, the only drama in my life comes from how I dress, I rarely fall out with anyone! xxx
It was a good journey thanks. We had a bit of drama in the early days after our divorce, when his new wife tried to rewrite our family history to paint me as the bad one, but she was revealed for what she was a few years later.
Deletei too love notebooks, just because i like making lists! i hope your mum is keeping well xx
ReplyDeleteI need to make more lists, then I can have more notebooks. 😄
DeleteLong term road works, a lot of cars and a few idiot drivers on the A5, M42, M6 and A14 today. Three hours of it, and we are so glad to be back home. There are only the poinsettia, some flowers, a vase of greenery, and the cards like bunting on two strings, for decoration here, and they will stay to cheer us until Twelfth night.
ReplyDeleteWe made Delia’s Stollen yesterday, a bit overcooked even ten minutes ahead of the time given, but very tasty.
The notebooks are pretty, like new exercise books, full of potential, a recipe, a poem, or a novel perhaps. DD had a pad of graph paper from someone who knows her well, she was ecstatic!
There are always so many idiot drivers on the motorway aren't there. We nearly got side-swiped on our journey by someone just not checking his mirror before pulling out.
DeleteI used to love getting a new exercise book at school, perhaps that's what gives so many of us a love of stationary. 😀
Oh dear I share a birthday with your ex...... Since I have a cold we plan on going out for supper tomorrow, as my birthday gift from my Hubby.
ReplyDeleteOh what a great idea about taking Christmas down one shelf at a time. Perhaps that would stop me from procrastinating about it.
God bless.
Not a problem, I hope you had a lovely day despite your cold. Enjoy your supper date. ❤️
DeleteI didn't put up a lot of my Christmas decorations this year and while I usually wait until January 6th to take down the decorations, having fewer things out should make it easier to undecorate. I'm glad you had a safe drive to visit your mother and return.
ReplyDeleteIt really is so much easier to dismantle Christmas when it has been a simple affair isn't it. Yes, we managed it in just over an hour in each direction, which makes it nice and simple visiting, and the weather wasn't too bad for once.
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