By 11, I'll be done!

Saturday 22nd December 2018
The best things in life are free: hugs, smiles, friends, kisses, family, sleep, love, laughter and good memories.

It's my last morning of having to get up until next Saturday, bonus to not having to rush around every day to sort mom.  We've added deafness to the Ahzheimer's mix, she's already been having the tv on 80+ for years but now she's putting it up to as high as it'll go 100!  She doesn't seem to be hearing most of what I say and it's getting her frustrated and angry but when I've suggested ear drops she says no, hopefully at some point she'll say yes but meanwhile, we have another ingredient being added to the wonderful world that is vascular dementia and Alzheimers.  

I did escape for a couple of hours yesterday, Terry and I went Christmas Food shopping and all I can say is, he stole Christmas from me, it's the highlight of Christmas for me, I just absolutely love to food shop as everyone knows and Christmas is no different, I'll spend hours trawling the shelves, when we've been away in Wales in years gone by it was always a Tesco, here it would've been Waitrose and/or Sainbury's but yesterday he dragged me to Aldi and we were in and out in half hour! Well I accidentally on a purpose forgot a few necessities and will be doing my best to escape to Waitrose tomorrow to have my hour a therapy in there.  Don't get me wrong I'm not faulting the quality of the food in Aldi, but I missed my tradition, some people put up a tree, I go food shopping. 

Next I went for an hour of calm at the Chi Rooms, lovely it was, then I came back to a mom with a face like thunder.  Terry and Alexis were off until Sunday (lucky them) and as he was leaving he wished me luck, saying he'd never seen her that bad - yay, happy days.

I managed to get her to watch some tv, we enjoyed 911 together then watched the Christmas Chronicles on Netflix, what an absolutely wonderful film, mom really enjoyed it too which was a bonus.

Then the most wonderful thing happened, the front door opened, no it wasn't Santa it was my sister with a cheese and onion pie for me and because Terry and Alexis have gone, it's all mine.  She seriously makes the best pies in the world.  See good home made gifts are the absolute best.

 Now my sister makes the best pastry, I may have said that already, but if you're interested, this is how she does it.  

300g of plain flour, 
75g lard 
75g marg. 
Pinch of salt and 
5 tablespoons cold water



Anne uses a pastry blender to mix the flour and fat together so she doesn't handle it until she adds the water, truly amazing and the only pastry that doesn't give me heartburn automatically!

I then had a lovely message off my bestie telling me she was planning a surprise birthday day out for me and my heart sank, I should've been thrilled but with how moms declining, I just can't see days out being a possibility any more, it's honestly too much hassle.  On a positive I love that she cares enough to want to do something to take me away from all this, I'm truly blessed to have the best friends in the world and a bloody awesome family too.  I just wished I still had the best mother that ever graced this planet and that she wasn't being taken from me one piece at a time.

Anyway, today's gonna be lovely, I have my very last workshop this morning for a week, our Justgiving page shows we've smashed the £2k pre Christmas target - thanks to a few secret Santa giftings, that really is an amazing total and once today's workshop is over I'll transfer the money from the keyrings and charity tubs this week which will add even more! BOOM!

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice which means I'm now on countdown to spring!  There was supposed to be an epic full moon and meteor shower last night, all I saw was a lot of rain.  

Have a very, very great Saturday before Christmas, if you're shopping like we did yesterday, do it with a smile on your face, have the banter with people, it makes the entire experience better.  We had a giggle doing ours!

Oh I almost forgot to mention the breathaylser; 

  we were both over the limit yesterday morning when we set it up, we knew we would be and had no intention of going anywhere that early.  But seriously people, don't drink and drink, don't use your mobile when you're driving, doing drive too fast (I was behind a car on Kitchen lane yesterday who had to be doing over 40!) Be safe, be thoughtful and don't be a dick!