Apparently today, October 19th, is designated as 'National Evaluate Your Life Day'. I had no idea such a day existed but it seems I am ahead of the game because that's sort of what I did yesterday.

J had a negative test result so we did meet for coffee in the end and it was lovely to see her again. We ended up talking about whether we felt ready to start expanding our lives by socialising more and the conclusion we reached is that, yes we both do once we've had our Covid booster jabs in December. For me, it feels like the right time to do more things out of the house and to start mixing with a wider group of friends/family in as safe a way a possible, including having visitors in my own home. For now, this doesn't include choir or joining an amateur orchestra but does include meeting with C, the piano teacher, to learn and play duets although that's obviously dependent on her feeling ready to meet in person as well. 

I also had a rethink about my Christmas plans. I usually do an Advent calendar, often homemade, but have decided against that this year although it may be back in favour in future years. Instead I will concentrate my celebrations on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and then the Twelve days from Boxing Day until Twelfth Night. This reflects how we celebrated the season during our childhood - Dad brought the tree home on Christmas Eve and that's when all the decorations were put out and we enjoyed all the sparkle until Twelfth Night, when it was all taken down again. I don't know how family and friends are planning to celebrate this year but I will catch up with everyone even if it's not on the big day. I find Christmas Day one of the hardest days since I lost Ced, so I'm making plans to do something special that can be reasonably flexible to accommodate any invites that head my way. 

Christmas Eve will be spent at home and, as in previous years, I will cook my turkey dinner before settling down for Carols at Kings followed by my own version of Jolabokaflod. This year's book is Richard Osman's 'The Man Who Died Twice'. Christmas Day depends on the weather but if it's dry I will be off to the beach after I've opened my pressies ... I'll just be walking, not swimming!

I had a rethink about my Twelve Days of Christmas gifts after I wrote about it yesterday. I'm still doing it but am adopting Lovely Grey's idea of gift giving using the principle of want, need, wear, read. The Twelve Days are something I did for years with Ced and it 'says' Christmas to me so I sorted out a much better gift list and have now ordered most of them. I didn't have much luck finding anything in town but the internet has proved its worth again and I only have four things to find. Strangely, these are 'wants' and 'needs' which are proving to be the hardest categories to decide on - I suppose it's a reflection of how fortunate I am in having everything I need and want. I've splashed out a bit more than usual this year but I've decided that I'm worth it! 

Apologies for rattling on about Christmas but it has helped me to get my mind around what I want to do. Today there is nothing in the diary. I was hoping to meet with Joy but that's had to be postponed so I'll have a quiet day at home and try to decide on the rest of my 'wants' and 'needs' gifts and get them ordered.