12 Days of Christmas (nearly)

 Christmas and beyond has been a great joy with family and friends and lots to do.

Christmas Eve we had two services with full choir and organ, brass and harp. This finished at midnight so Kathryn and I stayed in the city overnight and were in plenty of time for our Christmas Day service at 10am, choir call at 9am.

Some of us then headed home to mine and were welcomed by Elaine, son Barrett and Stephanie for a most convivial Christmas Lunch supplied by all including a delicious pudding made by one of Mark's organ students. We all awarded it a score of 10 and sent a photo to the student.

Christmas evening I headed with Geoff et al. out to Ellen's to join the clan for another Christmas feast.

For Christmas Geoff and Jen gave me an Instant Pot in which I was able to make a stew from all the left over salads and some mince I had in the freezer. I now have a large meal to share and another small one both in the freezer.

Another gift from Geoff and Jen was a huge cutting mat for my work table upstairs. It was slightly large and lots of discussion was had about ways to cut a self-healing mat!!

My strawberry patch is prolific at the moment and I'm getting lots for my breakfast each morning. I pick them when they have any red on them and by the next morning they are quite ripe as long as I don't leave them in the fridge.

On Wedesday I visited Mum and we enjoyed Christmas treat for morning tea and curried egg roll for lunch.

On Thursday Elaine and Stephanie and I had a great time finishing off a few quilts and getting a few more on their way to finishing.

Stephanie was the first to Christen the new cutting mat.

On Friday I gardened with Geoff at his place in the morning then helped with garage sorting. Mostly I was moral support and mentor. Then in the afternoon he came over to experiment with trimming the board to the right size.

It now fits the table! We found the best way was with a power jigsaw guided along a 'straight edge' then trimming any roughness with a stanley knife.

Saturday was mostly tidying at home ready to set off insect bombs before I left for a week of dog sitting at Ellen's. Ruby has been quite ill and needs familiar surroundings and medications as well as 4 small meals a day. We are having fun.

Yesterday I spent a little time on Zoom with quilting friends but rather than sewing while we chatted, I did part of newest jigsaw puzzle, a present from Ellen and Pete for Christmas.

We are having fun and I'm even doing washing and cleaning while I am here.