Well it's Christmas Eve and we are all ready and waiting. It was great to finally be out of isolation on Monday and get out for a walk and some fresh air. There has been a lot of baking this week by K. She has taken over from my Mum as the sausage roll maker and has made batches of meat ones and Delia's veggie ones. The last few years she has also made mini Christmas cakes for my Dad, Brother-in-Law and Mother-in-Law so those were done at the beginning of the week. I made the Christmas cake but Husband did the marzipan and icing and S did the decorations. S also organised the gingerbread house which wasn't a great success this year - literally minutes after taking the photo the roof caved in and the chimney and santa fell off! It had to have some emergency repairs which so far are still holding up.

In the end we decided to play safe and cancelled out plans to go up to Wiltshire for the night yesterday. We are a big family and Husband is part of a big family so 16 of us were going to go for a meal last night and 12 for lunch today. My Dad and Husbands Mum were worried about the number of different people mixing with omicron about and felt it better to ostpone till the new year so on Tuesday Husband with K and S went up for the day and delivered our presents to everyone. My Sister and Brother-in-Law will spend the day with my Dad tomorrow and I will phone him in the morning for a chat.

Well we are hoping to get out for a nice walk this afternoon although it's currently raining which is a pain so all that remains is for me to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas x

 Just a short post to say I tested positive for covid yesterday so am now in isolation until the middle of next week. I feel fine at the moment just a bit of a cold. The isolating I am going to find hard as I like to be busy but Daughter S has done a great job of running the show since yesterday, getting the girls off to school today and cooking meals. Husband is out of isolation tomorrow, just need to keep testing Lois as she is the only one of us not to have had it now.

I will be back before Christmas, not that I will have done anything to write about!

Take care everyone x

 It's been another busy week here starting with the carpet fitter ringing on Monday saying he had made a mistake with his diary and could he come the following day instead of Wednesday as booked. Well that put Husband in a flat spin as he frantically did lot's of finishing off jobs and ripped up the old living room carpet and took it to the tip. I got home from work on Tuesday to find it all done and the girls had helped Husband hoover up all the bits and put the furniture back. I have to say it all looks really lovely and the new fireplace that Husband built really makes the room. 

Tuesday evening and Wednesday we got all the Christmas decorations out of the garage and now the tree is up and decorated as is the rest of the house and we are looking truly festive. The girls all have a chocolate advent calendar but we also have a fabric one for the living room which Husbands Aunt made for us about 10 years ago. There is a pocket for each day which I fill with chocolates and they squabble over who's having which one every evening!

At the beginning of the week Husband started to feel like he was coming down with a cold. He did a lateral flow test on Tuesday which was negative but as he was still feeling rough on Wednesday Daughter S made him do another and there was a very faint line so with that she had him booked in for a PCR first thing Thursday morning. Unfortunately for him the result came back positive so he is now isolating in Daughter L's room until the end of next week. Daughter L is now sleeping in with me and we are hoping we don't succumb as we are the only two in the family now not to have had it. Unfortunately, a child I looked after Tuesday and was obviously in close contact with, tested positive Wednesday evening so I've got it coming at me all ways. I'm sure it's the same everywhere but our village is rife with it at the moment.

On Friday evening our village Scouts/Cubs and Beavers were doing an outside carol concert at one of our village pubs so me, L and K walked up to listen and enjoy a warm mince pie and the fake snow machine! 

I am going to miss Husbands company obviously, but also we work as a team with the girls as they all go to different schools in different towns and attend various clubs etc so I am now the lone taxi driver - it's going to be a tiring week for sure. Luckily all Christmas present shopping is done and wrapped, just food bits left to get and he will be out of isolation to help by then. Disappointingly, we were meant to be going up to Wiltshire this weekend to visit my Dad and Mother in Law which we had to cancel as even if we had gone without Husband there is too high a risk that me or L could be carrying it. I had presents all wrapped to take just in case Boris changes rules at the last minute again and we can't go for our Christmas visit, now I will have to keep my fingers crossed that our plans to visit 23rd/24th December get to go ahead as planned.

Well last week of term thank goodness. Poor old D has mock A Levels this week so not much of a fun last week for her but the other two have Christmas lunch and jumper day on Wednesday and that is about it as all other Christmas stuff has either been cancelled or postponed. I have finally had a date for my booster which is next Sunday so I will be glad to get that done. I am hoping that Daughter D gets a date for her second dose before Christmas as well. Husband was booked in for his booster this coming Wednesday which he has had to cancel so his will be in the new year now.

Well I think that is it for now. Going to get out for a nice walk with the girls this afternoon.

 Well it's been a busy week of Christmas preparations. I now have all the girls presents bar one and they are all wrapped and hidden away. I have a couple of bits to get for my Dad and Mother in Law and then they are finished. We are going up to Wiltshire this coming weekend and I am planning on taking their presents and those for my Sister and her Husband just in case there are any last minute restrictions on travel etc due to this new covid variant.

K has made two batches of sausage rolls this morning for the freezer for Christmas and she will also make a couple of batches of Delia Smiths vegetarian ones. I have lots of bits of food stashed away in cupboards and in the freezer but I need to sit down and roughly plan the meals we are going to have and see what else is needed and what fresh bits we will need nearer the time.

L's classmates should all be back at school tomorrow after having to isolate as they had covid but as so many children have been off,  the school has decided to postpone their Christmas production as their is not enough time left for rehearsals etc.  She was also meant to be going up to Exeter this coming Friday with the school to the theatre but the decision has been made to cancel this as well. 

I will be back to work this Tuesday which will be a shock to the system after two weeks off but it will only be for two weeks and then it will be the Christmas holidays. It's a busy week this week as we are finally having new carpet fitted in our living room and hall, stairs and landing. Husband has not quite finished decorating the living room so he will be flat out tomorrow and Tuesday! Once that is all done we will be able to put up our Christmas tree and generally decorate for Christmas.

Yesterday we had a lovely day out down in Plymouth visiting Saltram House which is owned by The National Trust. They always decorate the downstairs to a theme and this year it was The Nutcracker. It all looked amazing and it was lovely to be able to visit again. Last year the house was closed so we had to make do with just walking all around the grounds. Afterwards we had a hot drink in the cafe and then came on home. We usually got to Killerton House near Exeter as well but they are not taking part this year.

Hopefully back later in the week.