In between days

Hi all,

Did you have a good festive season? Ours was lovely. My parents travelled over and we all had our first Christmas in France. There was a lot of food, a lot of wine, a fake fire and a reasonable amount of presents (by that I mean not too many). Father Christmas delivered everything he was asked for and films were watched. A lot of time was spent in pyjamas and with good company, plus we played some games too. All good fun. 

Here are some of my festive photos for you. 

This is a bit of a downer: yesterday I went for a les than successful gynaecologist appointment about my endometriosis. He was nice but basically told me he wasn’t going to do anything at all, even for the pain. It was a bit of a miserable time for me as I spent ages travelling there by train (easier than driving) and hanging around for a 15 minute appointment that didn’t have any progress for my treatment of this illness. However, I was bought to earth with a bump when I saw this encampment of people in the park. 

They looked cold, some sounded ill and children were crying so I bought them some apple juice in the hopes that a small gesture would make their day. Sure I was feeling miserable but that shouldn’t make me unkind to others right? The lady I gave the juice to was so grateful as was the random old lady begging the other day who I bought a coffee for. It’s so easy to prejudge. For example if people had seen me looking miserable after my appointment yesterday they could’ve assumed I was just being grumpy or had had a bad day at work. And if they’d seen us in the forest with the dogs this morning with our screaming toddler they could’ve assumed we were being bad parents. Truth is she was knackered and wanted her teddy who had to stay in the car (he’d forgotten his wellies). My point is that we are all guilty of judging without all the facts. This is something I’m learning more with life experience. So that’s a new year promise for me: stop judging by appearance.

I’ll tell you more of my new year plans when I know what they actually are! And soon I’ll detail the makes I made! Like these two hot water bottle covers:

And this mermaid tail blanket.

All things those homeless people could’ve used. Something to think on in the in between days of Christmas and New Year as we finish our boxes of chocolates and enjoy our new goods. Oh also, we decided not to send actual Christmas cards this year. The reason was two-fold: firstly it costs over 1€ for each stamp and also we wanted to donate the money to charity. So we chose UNICEF  I’ve always liked their work and with the Indonesian tsunami they need all the help they can get. 

So here’s my card to you.

Enjoy your in between days when the actual relaxing happens and people really stop.