Boxing Day

 After all the madness of the weeks and day's leading up to Christmas I was glad to have a quieter day today.  The sun was shinning lovely so I took off to a local park for a walk and to feed the ducks.  It was nice to get some fresh air and be in the sunshine after weeks of rainy damp weather.

A pair of herons were on the furthest bank of the pond, lovely to see them back again.

And a friendly robin sat long enough for me to get a nice photo, I usually take some bird food with but I'd forgotten, I feel sure he would have come closer if I'd had some.

I had an hour in the garden, just a general tidy up, there are still lots of leaves in the boarders but I'm not too worried about those, they will be harbouring some tasty bugs for the birds. 

Christmas Day is always busy and yesterday was no different We go to see the children and grandchildren and take the presents Santa has left at our house, seeing the kids opening their presents does make it all worth while, I love seeing how excited they get.

We went out for our Christmas dinner this year, Stevie and Darren came with us, the meal was ok, it's never quite the same as your own roast dinner is it? but it saved cooking and I just wasn't up to having all the mess with cooking this year so I enjoyed it.  We had a 1.30 sitting and it was nice to come back and just chill out for the rest of the afternoon.

Tomorrow is my birthday, not sure if we are doing anything yet, if the weather is nice again it would be good to get out for a bit, we'll see.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas day and are now enjoying some relaxation time.

-X-

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well sort of.  

The tree is up but not decorated, all the Christmas decoration boxes have been stacked in the conservatory since Saturday waiting for me to find my enthusiasm to start, but I can't shake the 'can't be bothered' attitude.  But I know already that most things will stay in the boxes this year, as I get older as well as getting grumpier (ha ha), I'm also finding I want less 'stuff' around me. 

Anyway, I haven't been around for a few weeks and I've probably put most of you off reading the rest by moaning 🤣 

Yesterday was my middle daughter, Joanne's birthday, she turned 38.   The girls have money for birthday's, they are all grown and can go and treat themselves or put the money towards something.  She has Wednesday's off work so we went into town, lunch and cake was on me and she also picked out a couple things she wanted for Christmas, we also got some bits for the kids stockings.

I also made her a cushion, which wasn't for her birthday really but as It's Christmas/Winter, it was the right time to give it to her.  She bought a cushion front years ago and never got round to making it, when she moved and was having a clear out she gave it to me saying that she would probably never get round to It.  That was two years ago and I've just got round to it 🤭

I had to buy the piping but that's all, the backing fabric was also in with what she gave me, I think it was once a shirt of hers, and the inner pillow I already had.

I made a simple envelope back and I think the fabric is perfect for it.

I've never put piping on a pillow before, it's not perfect but the perfectionist in me thought It was pretty good for a first attempt.  She liked it, and I'm glad a couple bits of fabric are gone out of my stash, so win win.

I leave you with a picture of my un-decorated tree, It looks ok as it is to be fair, but I'll get round to making it all pretty in the next few days, when I can locate my enthusiasm.

-X-