Time for a Party Frock….

With Christmas Day a few days away, it is time to get into the Christmas spirit. And I intend to do just that, now that I have the link to yesterday’s church services. There’s the nativity – played out by puppeteers – and, of course, the carol service that we missed out on yesterday. I shall be singing my heart out to all of the hymns chosen, and listening intently to the lessons read.

Not only that, but I am looking out my party frocks to wear to all the ‘Zoom’ catch-ups over the next few days. I have even winkled out my costume jewellery to wear and bring back lovely memories. And, if I am not wearing my party frock, I might be wearing my ‘Mrs Santa’ outfit, like I did this evening.

What a lovely time we had. We zoomed in to meet up with Pete & Dawn and Carol & John to replace our traditional Christmas Eve ‘get-together’. We knew it was going to be different this year anyway, with or without the COVID situation, as Carol and John had no plans to be trundling down the M1 to visit the Coventrians this year. So, my plan was to get dressed up in my finest – well, anything that would fit, really – and partay….

Rewind to this afternoon when the post arrived with a couple of parcels on the doorstep. Both addressed to John. He sat down to open them and then threw one at me and said, “This one’s for you.” Oh? Whatever could it be? We cut open the parcels and found, to my delight, Santa outfits! One for me and one for the ol’ man. Ho! Ho! Ho! That’s what we’ll wear to our get-together then! And we did.

The Santa sets are very warm, however, and we both abandoned them half-way through our on-screen party. Fortunately, I was wearing a sea-green sparkly dress underneath that I’d found in the wardrobe and actually fitted. I also found jewellery that Carol had given me over the years that complemented the dress perfectly. A beautiful beaded necklace that she had made herself, and a very pretty chromium-plated bracelet, studded with pale blue sparklies. I loved my little bit of dressing up – it’s such a long time since we did it that I am going to make the most of it over the Christmas period.

In other news, we took delivery of our Christmas shop from Waitrose this morning, topped up by another little bit of shopping from Tesco. I am pretty sure we have everything but the turkey now for our Christmas celebrations. In fact, we are blessed with a bit more than we need, as I had done the order anticipating a large family gathering. No matter, I will give some away, and we have started on the festive fare already today. Those little pork pies with cranberries and the little hamburgers and hotdogs were delicious.

John spent a fair bit of time sorting out the shower cubicle in the ensuite again today – and he’s fairly confident that he’s cracked it. Even if he hasn’t, I think he’s going to leave it as it is and we’ll try it out for a while.

I spent the best part of the day wrapping presents again. I am so slow…… Mind you, it’s not surprising. I caught myself being just like Mum today, pouring over which particular ribbon and which specific label to attach to each parcel. In the past, I have lost patience with Mum as she painstakingly selected just the right thing to go on a present, and today, I found myself doing something very similar…..eeeek. And I even know that the recipients don’t take a lot of notice of how the parcels are wrapped when they receive them, yet I still did it! Note to self: Must get a grip.

We haven’t watched the news avidly today, and I certainly haven’t for a few days, to give myself a mental rest from all the shenanigans. However, we watched a bit of the briefing this afternoon and our hearts go out to everyone who is affected by the effects of the virus – especially those who are acutely affected by the ban on travel out of the country. What a nightmare for those stuck in the queues on the way to Dover – not knowing whether they will be home for Christmas; whether their perishable stock will last; whether they should turn round and go home or carry on into the continent; or whether, as they make the return journey to the continent, they will make it back home to loved ones.

It is very hard for many, many of the population in all four corners of the country with the rise in cases and the new variant thrown into the mix. I am frequently wryly amused, however, by some of those I see on Twitter claiming that there shouldn’t be any lockdowns. They are all living in areas where there is less impact of the virus and have no clear understanding of the horror of it. We are beginning to see NHS staff showing their worn-out, mask-imprinted, flushed faces again on the social media, so you know its impact when that starts. NHS staff are exhausted already. And all the scientists are saying the same thing: don’t mix. don’t get close.

• 33,364 people have tested positive for the virus today, including people we know
• 215 people have died from it in the community today.
• 107 people died in hospitals over the weekend

I am not sure there is much we can do to help the general population, given our circumstances, but we will not go into shops unless it is absolutely necessary nor will we socialise (with one exception) in an attempt to keep the spread rate low and prevent hospital visits. Our only exception will be on Christmas Day when we intend to wave at the family in their gardens, masked up and at least two metres apart from each other. We’d like to stop counting the days of our Tier 3 status soon, please, which stands at Day 5, since the announcement that nothing had changed for our area, and Day 20, since the beginning of our Tier 3. And it’s now Day 278 since kick-off in March.

Take care everyone. God bless.