From our home to yours.

Dear family, friends and followers.

Keith and I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and hopefully a better New Year xxxx. 

I know so many of you have had your plans for the festive season disrupted and the same has happen to our families. Of course we all want to see our loved ones at this time of the year, but the best present we can give anyone this year is their and our own good health. No one wants to take the virus to a loved one and especially those who are at high risk.

We have been ready for Christmas for a few weeks. I knew with everything going on, I would need to be ahead of the game, in order to beat the queues. Cards and presents were done and posted early, and over the past few weeks I have been buying Christmas nibbles and food and putting it in the freezer, so that there would not be a last minute panic, because I had no intention of standing in a supermarket queue, when we are all supposed to be socially distancing. My preparations have born fruit having seen some of the news items and messages from friends, when they have gone shopping. One such story came from our local radio station. One of the radio presenters went into a well known supermarket beginning with S to buy pigs in blankets. When he got to the isle, he noticed there were only two packs of pigs in blankets left, which made he speed up a little to his prize. He got to the shelf and was about to pick up one of the two packs, when a little elderly lady dived under his arm to grab the other pack. He was so surprized, his only response was "Well whatever happened to social distancing"?. He got no reply. This is why I am glad to have had my food shopping delivered, whilst we remain in lockdown. We are not having a traditional Christmas lunch, we are having Peking Duck and pancakes, followed by Chinese nibbles, Sausage Rolls and Mince Pies, with other nibbles thrown in. I know it is not conventional, but hey who cares this year. Neither of us is feeling exactly festive and I am quite sure many of you feel the same way. But we will make the most of it and will make a toast to those who we lost this year. I sincerely hope 2021 will be a much kinder year to all of us.

Now I am not a person who lies in of a morning. If I am awake, I like to get up and make a cuppa, which I will take back to bed in order to watch the news. If I wake early, I tend to fidget and get restless, so getting up is the best thing for me to do. This morning however, I did not awake until 8.45am. I know, that is so late for me, but I am guessing I must have needed it. The problem I have with sleeping in is the day is wasted, and I end up being behind with everything and not one for rushing around to play catch up. The first thing that I was behind on was administering Keith's medication. Everything was put forward by at least one hour. I find I get discombobulated, when a normal morning routine is all over the place. I am by no means OCD about anything, I just like the mornings to get off to a good start. I know I could always put an alarm on, but one is never usually required. 

It has been dreadful weather today. Wall to wall rain, which made me take the decision to not bother with my morning walk. I will catch up with that tomorrow. Having caught up on the boat chores finally by lunch time, it was then time to eat and have a much needed coffee. With little else to do, I got on with more family tree things. Today's research has been into Tom Henry Cosser. Tom is my 1st Cousin 3x removed. He was born in 1854 and the first ship he sailed on was Aurora at the age of 10 years old. The last ship he sailed on was Vernon in 1892. 

On the 21st April 1874, he  sailed for a year on the Duke of Wellington. He actually sailed on her three times in his Naval career. In all he sailed on thirteen ships. What I have not found out yet is when he died and whether it was at sea or on land. I also do not know if he ever married. I really am enjoying finding out the history of my family down the years. 

I hope that wherever you are in the world, you will keep yourself safe and well and I will post again after Christmas.

Pop back soon xxx