Detail of a bag and jacket during Christmas shopping.

  • ๐Ÿคง Common Cold. The whole week with a stuffy nose. Certainly not the way I wanted to end the year, and hopefully I will not, but it’s been more than a week now. No headache anymore, no scratchy throat, but the nose is still not ready.

  • ๐Ÿช Another batch of cookies was baked during this week’s visit to the in-laws. They were delicious again. tinyMovieStar LOVES baking, and she loves routines, so I guess we’ll have these cookie sessions for a long time. Not complaining.

  • ๐Ÿ“… One thing the little one does not have: patience. A cousin gave her a Paw Patrol advent calendar, and she wouldn’t stop until she found Skye. Of course it was hiding behind door number 24. The fun lasted around 10 minutes.

  • ๐ŸŽจ A photo show opened on Saturday, one where I have a photo. There are 66 of us, each presenting one photo. We weren’t able to make it to the opening, as changing our routines can be a challenge. We just had lunch with my parents, and then drove to meet movieStar’s family. As usual. I wouldn’t mind attending these events, sometimes, but when the day actually gets here I can’t seem to find the energy to do it, with all the juggling that’s needed for that.

  • ๐ŸŽ„ xMas party at the kindergarten. It was a lovely mess. We gathered at the gallery where the event was taking place, after driving the girls there, and getting the car back home again. It was a great party, but a bit chaotic, as expected. Getting so many kids, and parents, behaving properly for that long is not easy. Still, loads of fun, with music, dance, short movies, and a lunch with the whole group. The school is awesome, we’re lucky.

  • ๐ŸŽ…๐Ÿผ Driving around during this season is an exercise in patience. Traffic here is usually manageable, at least for someone like me, as I don’t do it often. When December arrives though, everyone seems to turn into a crazy driver. Crawling speed crazy, not Speedy Gonzales crazy.

  • ๐Ÿ“บ Finished Harry and Meghan. Done. Meh. Started watching The Recruit, alone. A little boring. Our most watched show, probably of the whole year, and still very much on repeat: Bluey.

  • ๐Ÿ‘ฎโ€โ™€๏ธ Neighbor Trouble. That’s sad, and crazy, but our neighbors from the old place seem to have finally lost it. They have behaved erratically before, but this week one of them turned violent, and broke into our place, kicking the door in. With my friend who’s living there inside! Police were called, but he had left already, so not a lot else to do but file a complaint, that will probably take years to get anywhere. And I did get to pay a visit to the local police station the following morning. Yay.

  • ๐ŸŒณ We moved out of the city for Christmas, a couple of days before the actual date. It’s quieter, and tinyMovieStar gets a few extra days with grandma & grandpa, the dog, the cat, and some of the cousins. Feels more Christmas-y as well. The countryside, and the fully decked out house, add a lot to the season.