Lovely day, and looking forward

 Well, we did have a lovely Christmas day after all, it did go ahead as planned.  I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had been called off and we couldn't go to best friend's house, as we have done for lots of years....2 of them are immuno-compromised, and there were all the mutterings about whether or not Boris was going to cancel Christmas again.  I didn't think he would, though, he must have thought he'd be slaughtered if he did.  Husband and I, and best friend's family, all did lateral flow tests on Christmas Eve, thankfully all were negative so it could all go ahead.  Best friend cooked a lovely lunch, as always, some went for a walk (in the rain, but needs must with a dog!), presents were exchanged (we liked ours), games were played, lots of chat and laughter, and hugs and kisses.  Wonderful.

Christmas Eve being the 2nd anniversary of Mum's death, and with me somehow feeling it so much more than I did last year (for some unknown reason), I deliberately made myself busy all day.  Firstly, I made some chocolate muffins to take to best friend's.  Next I dealt with the piles of veg.  I'd put all the many veggies that husband had got in the shopping the week before, in 2 big baskets in the unheated utility room, so they'd all kept very well.  I prepped nearly all of them, part roasting some, parboiling others, and some I just froze after peeling and chopping.  That took care of 2 or 3 hours.  Made another week's worth of dog food.  Sorted out the big freezer in the utility room, now there's a bit of space in there to move things around and organise them in the way I like (husband just throws things in wherever there's a space, with no regard for my organised system, so it takes me ages to find anything he's put away).  In the afternoon, when the muffins were cold, I decorated them with the chocolate buttercream I'd made earlier, topped with some chocolatey sweets:-

They came out pretty well, but I have to say I'd rather make a lemon drizzle or plain old fruit cake any day - far less fiddly!  I took a dozen to our friends, husband is pleased that there are 4 more left here for him to have.  I did have one, for taste testing purposes obviously.  Nice, but far too sweet for me.

I'm feeling a lot happier and so much more positive today, now Christmas is over.  I've never been much of a fan of Christmas, even before Mum died.  Once we've had the winter solstice and Christmas day has gone, for me it starts to feel like the start of a new year and things being on the up.  I'm now looking forward to planning things for the caravan and our summer there....just 64 days till we can go!  We were given some garden centre vouchers for Christmas, so we might pop out to our favourite garden centre (if it's open, I haven't checked yet) and see if there's anything in their sale we could get for the caravan.

Looks like we're going to have some sunshine today, which is nice - it rained almost continuously yesterday.  Showers are forecast for pretty much all the coming week, though.  Never mind, soon be Spring!