No more deadlines!

No more in 2021, at least. I finished my final one of the year on the 20th. This December's not been too awful, in truth, even with the short deadline. No longer having a toxic work situation is making such a difference. Anyway, apologies for the blurriness, but here I am in my new navy velvet jeans. I've had both my pairs of tweed trousers for two and a half years and they're getting worn out (my clothing spreadsheet tells me I've definitely had my money's worth out of them, with over 140 wears of the grey ones since buying them) so I decided to buy more trousers. These were half price in a Lands End sale, so I got these and a pair of emerald green cords. They're so comfy, I went back and ordered a pair in teal and one in black, though the black had sold out.

Warning: this post contains much more than mere traces of Christmas...

On the 21st we drove back to Norfolk to see my mum, and I left all the gifts for the Norfolkers with her. While we've been back in the office part time since August I had permission to work from home last week as mum nearly died of pneumonia a few years ago and I wanted to isolate ahead of seeing her, to reduce the risk of passing anything on to her. We also took lateral flow tests before heading out. It was great seeing mum and her partner. I wore my new green cords and a bright red jumper, because if you can't dress like Mama Elf to see your mum for the first time in two years, when can you?

Pippin looks like she's being helpful, but she knocked my little wooden spinning cats ornament off the mantlepiece - where she is NOT ALLOWED! - and broke it. At least, the bits we've been able to retrieve are broken; we won't be able to rescue the rest from down the back of the telly cabinet till after Christmas. Naughty Pippin.

Last night we went to the cinema to watch It's A Wonderful Life with mulled wine and mince pies. We used to try to do it every year, and it usually sells out very quickly so I pounced on tickets as soon as they became available, long before the omicron variant hit the news. I guess a lot of people are concerned about omicron, or already ill, as the cinema was at least half empty. And when we walked back through Bath afterwards, at least one restaurant had no customers at all. I guess we're all deciding how much to risk nowadays, and Mr Robot and I really wanted to see the film at the cinema. Now we're back to avoiding the whole world...

Ziggy looks like he's ready for Santa, but as he's a total coward who is frightened of anyone who isn't me or Mr Robot, he'd be out of there before Santa had managed to shoehorn his way down our tiny chimney. (See the greenery behind the pottery houses? Mr Robot grew bonsai Christmas trees to go with the village.)

I'm now off work till the 4th of January, and looking forward to days of reading, eating, catching up on everyone's blogs now deadlines are done, and generally Hobbitting around. Mr Robot and I love Christmas and will be enjoying a full-on goose dinner tomorrow, and there will be a little goose for the furballs too. 

However you spend this time of year, I hope it's happy and healthy for you and your loved ones.