Tuesday

 Good morning!  So here we are - the first Day of December and now I feel the decorations are legitimate.  I've been into the Jacquie Lawson calendar and now there's a Christmas tree in the village square and it's beautifully decorated.

Later on I will light my advent candle, being very careful as the first sections burn down very quickly, the shape being a square based pyramid.

Yesterday turned out well.  Jeff came, worked and left again leaving a much neater garden.  Beth slept in and came down just before lunch, leaving soon after we had eaten.  The Thermione demo was good fun, I learnt several new things and enjoyed the fruits of my cooking for dinner with four more portions destined for the freezer as soon as I can work up the energy to get them out there.

Today is blank in the diary so I think it is a day for pottering, for writing lists, for dealing with an overflowing clothes basket and generally organising stuff a bit more.  Hopefully, by the end of the day, I will feel that I've achieved in some small way.  Fingers crossed, anyway.

For the last two years or so, I have celebrated the run up to Christmas Day by posting YouTube clips of my favourite music, carols and songs and this year is no exception.  Many of them will be very much the same as previous years because - well, favourites are favourites, aren't they.

I'm kicking off with the old favourite, O come, O Come Emmanuel, sung by the great choir of King's College, Cambridge.  Enjoy.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here,

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.