Saturday 28th November - Last Day of the (Church) Year

 Today has ended in peace and quiet (as at 8pm).

The news from the hospital was encouraging - my father state of health (of unhealth?) has again improved.

'A weekend of doing nothing is what he needs right now', said the doctor, and that's what he's getting. And antibiotics. And a drip. And careful monitoring. But it will hopefully be a weekend of no more tests and scans and being pulled and pushed and trolley about.

I've begun thinking about Advent and Christmas. We have been setting up Advent calendars; my task is to fill the drawers of the Christmas Tree shaped one for my husband. 

He has the much fiddlier task of filling the little cubby-holes of the Father Christmas one for me.

  

Either way, it is a tricky business finding things small enough to fit the spaces. Last year I bought chocolate elves, and then had to cut the ears off them to make fit. This year I bought Cocoloco truffles. I was halfway through cutting them all in half in order to cram them into the drawers - they were just a couple of millimetres too big - when I tasted some of the crumbs. Oh-oh. Not sure that he's going to like them... so I offered him one to test.

I wasn't wrong - so that was a disaster averted. But not a complete disaster - once melted into hot milk they make very good, rich hot chocolate. Luckily I have other things to put in the drawers, and there is always on-line ordering. I did a bit of searching, checked out the reviews, and something should turn up soon.   

The cats have got an early Christmas present; included n the latest box of cat treats is a small penguin which you can fill with treats. The cats can then 'have fun' extracting the treats...

McCavity purrs at it, and pushes it along the floor with her nose until a treat drops out. Leo has also tried this technique with some success, but both cats are really too old (and dim?) to persist.

 Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent. I shall be reading Carys Walsh's Advent book 'Frequencies of God', reflections on poems by R S Thomas in company with a Facebook group through December, well, starting tomorrow, so you might be getting a bit of poetry here from time to time!