Project 52 2021 week 51

This week’s been lovely. We’ve not been doing much. A bit of helping out on the farm for N – stacking and moving logs, and feeding a very early calf that’s not fed properly off his mum. And for me it’s been a week off work, and lots of getting ready for Christmas. (with a bit of sale shopping thrown in).

Here’s our week 51 of Project 52.

On Sunday I met up with two old school friends. We usually get together a few times a year, but haven’t since Christmas 2 years ago thanks to Covid. It was only around the corner from me, at Upton House. We decided to stick to an early lunch when it was pretty quiet, then just walk around the grounds rather than going in the house.  It was a shame that it was so foggy as there were no views to be seen, and being the winter walk we didn’t get to see the mirror lake.  It was strange because it’s all hard walking around it.  But it was lovely to see them face to face again.

Monday N started his mammoth mince pie baking.  He decided to get Granny to make his pastry in the mixer, while he did the mincemeat. 2 batches later he was happy. 

N had his catch up private tennis lesson. The coach used normal yellow balls with him, so hopefully he’s happy that N can continue to play with those in line with the age group he’ll be going into. He also brought along a full size racket – flukily the one N was eyeing up – in case we wanted to buy it. He offered me a really good deal – better than all the deals online, so we snapped it up.  Before N starts using it, I might need to, as I seem to have lost my tennis racket – I think I must have left it at a tournament during half term, as I don’t remember playing with it since then. Gutted because noone from the club has responded to my email about whether it’s been picked up, and that racket is no longer available.

On Tuesday we dropped off some mince pies at a family friend’s house who’s on their own over Christmas.  We also headed out for a couple of walks with the dogs. We had to leave the german shepherd in the kennel because she wasn’t behaving – nipping the older dog and not letting her alone, and pulling too hard when on the lead. 

Wednesday was more mince pie making! He’s a mince pie monster. I also made some banana bread with uneaten fruit.  N is very partial to that luckily, as the OH won’t eat it. I thought I’d have to slice up half and put it in the freezer for lunchboxes. But N’s getting through it quite nicely.  My Tesco shop only had 2 sensible substitutions and 1 missing item. Annoyingly it was my celeriac which I use to replace potatoes. But I was quite pleased about the delivery.

On Thursday we did a quick trip to drop off some returns (more bras – to date, about 20 bras tried on – 4 kept) at the post office.  Luckily our tiny little village shop had celeriac in, so I’ve got everything needed for Christmas lunch, and my list of prep and cooking order done.  We finished cleaning the downstairs too, so we’re set (assuming we can keep the house clean for 2 days!).

Friday we spent most of the day prepping the food for Christmas day, including a keto pecan cheesecake. A few more presents arrived for under the tree and we played a board game. In the evening it was a fish and chip takeaway tea as we’d decided it probably wasn’t the best idea having all the family go to the pub.

Saturday and Christmas day. N was awake at 5.30, I heard him head over to the farm at 6.20 in search of a bacon sandwich. Turns out he ended up with Shredded Wheat because he was still full from his tea the night before! I was woken by the OH chopping wood at 6.40, and by 7 N was upstairs and opening his stocking. I have a feeling he now knows Santa is me – as he made a bit of a slip of the tongue saying ‘you, er Santa bought this’, but he didn’t let on during the day.

The weather wasn’t great which meant the football goal and table tennis table gifts will need to wait until it’s drier before getting set up and used. That didn’t bother N. My brother came over, we ate well, chatted and relaxed, took the dogs out for a walk to drop off presents at both sets of cousins. My new wellies fit well – yay to finding wider leg wellies. It was a quiet but nice Christmas.

New posts this week:

• School days in December year 6
• Christmas A-Z
• Blogmas Christmas tag 2021