Happy Xmas!

Here I am, in London, after a stressful couple of days getting everything in order and ready for Xmas Day.

The food I ordered from Sainsburys and was sent to my friend's house had a touch of disaster about it, when they substituted the nut roast I'd ordered for a mushroom and pumpkin wellington. In anyone else's world this would have been fine, but my mother hates mushrooms with a vengeance and so I had to do a last minute rethink.

What actually happened is that I got out my old recipe book and chopped and packeted up my own nut roast to make today. Hopefully, it's all there, but at least the bottle of sparkling Shiraz I bought for myself will go someway to making my day zip by and should ameliorate any stress. I think I'm gonna need it.

Yesterday I got on the train for London to discover that No. 2 Son was on the same train. We had a short conversation before he went back to his seat to sleep and then we met up with No. 1 Son who'd come on a slightly earlier train and had been in Kings Cross half and hour before us. So far so good.

We got to my mother's house to discover she was feeling very unwell. I left the boys to it and went off to my friend's house to collect the meat I'd ordered for them. Managed all of that with little problem and then it was time for us to go out to dinner to the restaurant my mother had booked. She didn't come and we had a lovely evening.

Then it was back to the house for chat and laughs before heading for bed.

So all that remains is for me to wish you a very happy Christmas and I hope yours will be stress-free. I can see that I'm probably going to have to employ pretty much every one of my stress management tips to keep mine that way, but then at least I know them all by heart!

Have a good one!