Christmas Tree

 Last year I didn't have a Christmas Tree.  I left it too late to buy one, the first week of December all the Christmas stuff was finished.  This year I bought on the beginning of November.  Today Hannah and I put it up.  It's small but looks good!

the tree is up

I have to find the lights and I have other decorations to put up.

Doing this made me a little sad and very nostalgic.  I used to do three trees, the biggest in the living room, smaller one in the room I use for teaching and a small one in the entrance.  I don't bother with the living room or entrance as they wouldn't survive the cats.  Just a small one in the room where I teach.  Now the kids are grown Christmas just doesn't have the same appeal.  It's always been hard here as it isn't a holiday, but I tried to make it special.  Of course, Hisao dying one week before Christmas has made the last 10 years harder!  And this year with the cost of everything it's going to be harder but I'm trying to shift the focus to having fun family time, maybe get the board games down and play them!

I'm now 27 days with no sugar.  Down one and half kilos, not a lot but am feeling a lot better.  Couple of good things, one was I made chocolate chip muffins the other day.  I had one and was satisfied with that.  Usually, those kinds of things sing my name! But this time just one was enough!  Also I managed to walk from the dentist to the supermarket and back home.  The first time I've walked that far in years.  So slowly getting better!