Merry Christmas!

It has been an important pause since my last posting. We have a valid excuse though: my little family has shown exemplary solidarity in being sick  - nobody was left untouched. A good thing in being stranded at home for several weeks is that the usually fretted Christmas rush became actually a joyous and long-waited return to the civilitation! What a glorious an hour-and-a-half of wondering in the Christmas fare.. I managed to do all the planned Christmas shopping AND even get a haircut impressing even myself of my time management..Besides, there was going to be no preparation stress this Christmas anyways - we would be spending it peacefully at home with our little family of three. Looking at the news with people having spent a small fortune to spend the Christmas period on a mattress at the airports made us feel very lucky..

For some reason the need to prepare to-do lists emerged anyways: finish projects at work, send thank you notes, clean email box, get Christmas photos for cards, search missing addresses, send cards, get Christmas tree, book the cleaning lady, get Christmas star and red candles, prepare menu and grocery shopping list..the list goes on..strangely enough, in these times of prosperity that we live in, a most peculiar phenomenon occurred to make our preparations even harder - many of my strategic Christmas items are OUT OF STOCK in this city!

Ice-prevention liquid is out from the whole country and therefore airports closed for days, cleaning services are "out" because my girl is sick, no red glu wine in Ikea or Christmas cookie dough for cookie houses..the cherry on the cake was that my personal Christmas Tree Hunter went to 5 different places to get 1,5 - 2 m tree with no success! And one was finally delivered at home. How poshy is that. It's beautiful. And you can smell the price.  But let's remain positive - our Christmas is saved now! Another positive thing I need to share, cleaning my house all by myself made me realize two things: 1. I am definitely not over paying for my cleaning lady. It took me 7 hours instead of 5, but compared to her I am an amateur and perfectionist 2. There is something therapeutic in cleaning Your Own House. Your (not so little) Love Nest. And it definitely contributes to the Christmas feeling.

Then the moment comes; everything is finally ready: cooking, cleaning, wrapping, decorating - all done. It is evening, I sit down and enjoy. Christmas tree decorated, the table beautifully set with fruits, candles and chocolates, the Buche de Noël taking savour in the fridge. We did a long walk the three of us in the snow and admired the houses in Christmas decor, so white and peaceful. I feel utterly happy. It will be a Merry Christmas.