Wednesday

I'm a wee bit worried.

Never before have I been ready for Christmas quite so early.  Oh, OK, there's a few bits and bobs to do including some cooking and baking (fun!) and family pressies to wrap but I will do that this evening in front of the telly with something cheery to keep me going.

Yesterday was a busy day with a few panics to make life interesting.
Anna came round to drop off some chairs and while she was here there was a sudden crash and the tray with all my jams and chutneys for presents landed on the carpet.  I have no idea what happened but it didn't half make a mess as well as scaring the living daylights out of us.

Anna, bless her, helped me to tidy up and the eventual damage was just four smashed jars.  It made a shocking mess but we rubbed and scrubbed and I had some carpet cleaner so we used that and it seems to have cleared up fine.  You'd certainly not know now that yesterday there was a pile of green tomato chutney mixed with fragments of glass.

A bit later I tried to get some washing out of the machine and the door wouldn't open.  After some pulling and wiggling I decided to run it through a rinse and spin and then try again and, fortunately, it worked fine.  Again, no idea why but phew.

The cleaners have been and everywhere is now shiny clean - everywhere except my bedroom/dumping ground.  No-one - but no-one - is allowed to see the inside of that room!  This clean has been a treat to myself before Christmas for several years now and it doesn't half make a difference.

I've done my shop and that's it.  Done and dusted.  What we don't have, we won't have!  We won't starve, that's for sure.  I'm so glad I went early.  It was busy but it was shop assistants doing internet orders, not 'real' shoppers.  I didn't have to queue for a till.  AND I was really good and successfully fought that 'I won't have enough' feeling.  I KNOW I have more than enough.
Afterwards I topped up with petrol and was pleasantly surprised at the price.  It's been a long time since the litre gauge and the pound gauge synchronised with each other.

As I have more time than I expected, I'm going to make some stollen and some biscotti.  I've made the latter before but not the former so it should all be good fun.  I also have to make soup for tomorrow, some bread, gravy (from the giblets), Bath's vegetarian meal, some oat crackers and some cranberry sauce.  Easy peasy!  I also need to make a big pot of broccoli soup but I don't need that until tomorrow.

Later on the turkey arrives so I will get that oven ready.  It's really too warm in the shed although it's colder than yesterday so it's got a space in the fridge.  It's a KellyBronze and the roasting instructions are so, so simple, it's a doddle.

Right!  I've had my coffee and sit down after shopping now so I'd better get up and going.  Whether you are busy or not today, I wish you all a good one!