Project 52 2020 week 50 – Christmas tree is up

It’s felt like this week has dragged on to get o the weekend. As per most of this ear it’s been about work and school, a bit of tennis thrown in.

General goings on in the news have been that Brexit trade deals aren’t really getting anywhere, so we’re moving rapidly towards having no deal by the end of the year when the transition period for us leaving the EU is over. Covid cases are back rising again in some areas – mostly secondary school children. So some are pulling kids out of schools to try and avoid having to isolate and ruin Christmas plans. It does amaze me how so many people are still blase about meeting people or doing what they fancy even if in tier 3. At tennis we were sent club and LTA rules explaining, but other parents seem to be ignoring the fact that the clubhouse isn’t open and are sitting in there. Sigh.

Onto week 50′ for Project 52.

On Sunday N had club tennis session. He’d not done the weekly sessions before because too many clashed with matches and training (which were then all cancelled in lockdown/postponed). We also thought it would all be young ones, but were told there were quite a few older kids, so we decided that this time he’d go.

Except we turned up to find only 1 older boy, and a reception age child turned up at the older time instead of the tots time. So because the older red players couldn’t share a court with him, he had one court to himself, and all the 8 others had to cram onto one court until the young boy had finished his half hour. I was not impressed. Hopefully next week, there’ll be more older children there, and they’ll have said no younger children, or at the original agreed earlier time.

Monday was work. I managed to get some festive flatlay photos done for my dried oranges and other decorations in my lunchbreak.

Tuesday was a frosty morning. N’s car door wouldn’t open, so it confused school who get them out of cars. He had to switch to the other side. I’m going to have to start parking in front of the kitchen instead so there’s a bit of shelter from the house when it’s really cold.

On Wednesday, just work and school. Took a few more festive photos, and was interrupted quite a lot in the morning by the electricity helicopters. They’ve been around quite a lot flying low over the fields and houses, checking the electricity cables. They took their time leaving. N had his private tennis lesson. He had a great session – and managed to draw 9-9 with his coach.

Nothing much to say about Thursday. I had meetings back to back most of the day from 9.30-5. I’d put some croissants in before my meeting at 9. After the alarm went off they weren’t quite read, so I put them back in again meaning to get them out again after putting something away. Remembered about them at lunchtime. Oops. The problem with agas, there’s no way you can smell what’s cooking (or burning) until you open the door.

N came home moaning about football at school. It seems lots of them were mucking about, tripping people up, and the coach had been threatening to report pretty much all of them to the teacher. N wasn’t pleased given there were some not getting involved. But no issues after, just N’s annoyance at the silliness of some of his school mates.

Friday was a short working day. N’s Peter Rabbit he’s had since he was born came back from being re-stuffed. He’s a bit fatter than he originally was, but I’m sure with a few hugs, he’ll be squashier again. It was N’s target assembly at school. I logged in, but despite being here for the first person in his class to get their certificate, I managed to miss 4 of them going up – including N. Oops.

The evening was back at tennis again. Nice to have a chat with other parents although most who stay go for a run round the playing fields. I tend to watch and read. They did serving for most of the session – N’s are much more consistently going in now he’s getting to practice them at least once a week. Next stop is learning how to score for when he moves up to mini greens next term. No more tie breaks, they play Fast 4 which is normal scoring but advantage isn’t played. He’s never done that scoring although knows the gist of it. I’m hoping he’ll get it practiced at his private lessons because at the moment Fridays are mixed orange and green session so they generally play orange scoring for simplicity.

Saturday N and I decided to put up the Christmas tree. I’d assumed we’d just do it next weekend once school was finished, but we decided to blitz it so we could spend Sunday afternoon watching the Christmas Chronicles. I watched it this week and loved it, but want N to watch the first so we can watch the second together. He’s not a big film watcher – there’s just a couple he’ll watch over and over again. He prefers tv series, but I reckon he’ll really like it. I’m really pleased with the tree – I decided to add some ribbon to fill it out a bit, but wish I’d bought more than I did. Our tree is quite skinny, but while I’d love a big bushy 7 footer, we’d not be able to get to the plug if we had one. So we’ll stick with this – more is more for me with baubles, and I love huge ones even though they’re probably a bit big for my tree. We didn’t put as many on this year because we had the ribbon.

I’ve been doing Blogmas this year, so I’ve done daily posts so far in December. Posts this week include:

• Christmas isn’t a competition
• Secret Santa tips
• Gift guide for rock lovers
• Easy handmade wooden garland
• Favourite gifts I’ve given at Christmas
• Ways to save ahead and not burn the budget
• How to make dried oranges and other natural decorations