December

The hardcore Christmas party revellers left at the end of the annual Christmas Carol Concert, where we sing and play our way through popular Christmas carols. I always leave practising the piano until a couple of days before, and barely have my tunes ready in time to play. Luckily there are other musicians present, though this year I did think we could do with an overhaul for next year. A way of engaging the children better, or involving everyone better.

This year I became obsessed by knitting Christmas balls. I was like a woman possessed. I just love everything about them. The silliness, the coolness, the kookiness. They tick all the boxes for me. Plus, the variations are endless. I want to do the reindeer head and the skier, and the PIG. A double-chart is needed for the pig.

My bamboo double-pointed needles are ideal for the balls. And as usual my wee companion helps by keeping me warm and entertained.

This month I got to see two of my favourite far-away friends. This is Joyce, my ex-work colleague from Norwich. We worked together from the beginning of the Witness Care Units in England and Wales. I liked Joyce immediately because she was straight-talking and good fun. I still miss that job. It had extremely challenging moments, but the team was great, very supportive, irreverent humour and Fridays encapsulated 'do-what-you-want-Friday', and the famous Shake 'n' Bake. Oh, and for a while we used to phone in takeaway bacon rolls. 

And this is Janie my London friend. We have started meeting in York once a year (nowhere near enough), which is equidistant between London and Edinburgh. We both used to live in Tufnell Park and spent many gin evenings in Janie's garden. Also many walks on Hampstead Heath finishing up with tea at Kenwood. I wish I could keep all the favourite parts of London and Norwich in my Edinburgh life. If only teleporting existed. 

My favourite day in the whole year is 23rd December, our wedding anniversary. We do exactly the same thing every year, which involves: shutting out the world, lunch out at a favourite cafe/restaurant, and then home for Champagne and watching White Christmas. I LOVE White Christmas. The dancing and singing are just superb. And the manners, and costumes and sentiment.

We had a marathon drive yesterday, as we always do. Our families live in a triangular hour and a half drive from us/each other. We started off at my parents' house, then moved over to my sister and brother-in-law's house for Christmas dinner. It was really lovely, and they had obviously gone to a lot of effort to make everything great. I also got to see my great-nephew, Keigan, who is such a terrific boy. Then a late afternoon/early evening drive to my mother-in-law's. I wish she lived beside us. She is also a great character and was recounting a story of when Hagos and his siblings were children and the family used to go on cycling holidays! They cycled all the way from Annan to Carlisle and beyond. Hagos can remember cycling on the dual carriageway when he was eight years old! On one cycling holiday Hagos and his sister Jill got food poisoning and their dad and brother had to cycle all the way home to collect the car to go and pick them up. 

Today we're heading round to see our friends and Godsons for a mammoth game of Monopoly. Lynsey and I are planning to drive back here to put the chickens to bed and have a walk/break from everyone else.