au revoir Christmas

As the flame of Christmas 2022 dies out, it's time to start looking ahead. Not one for making resolutions as such, I've decided on a few things that I want to address, change, or continue. The first one is the ongoing good work of purging, especially when it comes to my clothing. Last year I started buying one particular brand and have really got my money's worth out of all pieces. So that's No. 1. Carry on buying it, continuing to thin out existing clothing as I do so. It's a slow process but there's no rush.
Dry January is happening this year. Too many bubbles over Christmas, it's time to rein it in and refresh. Same goes for my diet, which has expoded into an orgy of chocolate, cheese and calories. Not a diet, just a sensible food makeover and I'm quite excited to do it.
An honest aside here, I'm quaffing a glass of wine as I write and am plotting to scoff a large portion of trifle later on, but it's still Christmas and these are January plans so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The entire house needs a serious deep clean. It has gone through a lot of changes this year and dirt has hung around despite all the cleaning I've done. Add to that the mess of Christmas and you can imagine how grimy I'm feeling when I walk into rooms. I'm going to work on a plan for January so it's not too overwhelming and I can work on things in a sensible manner.
Violet's sofa room is due a makeover, a project that's on the cards for the next few weeks. It'll involve painting, changing curtains, a trip to the dump and a bit of moving around. Her sofabed arrived before Christmas and came in handy last night for my SIL. There was only one slight skirmish between Rosie Dog and Henry Cat, and it wasn't actually anything to do with either of them. Violet accidentally knelt on Henry's tail, he took the opportunity to blame Rosie who was nearby, hissed and made a loud angry cry. She hadn't done a thing and was so confused! She has the saddest brown eyes and spent most of her time looking woefully at Henry, who did his best Superior Sneer at her. Cats really are little gits, but at the same time I think he was just proving the point that it was HIS house and she had to toe the line.
The hall and landing are in desperate need of a refresh and I'm sure we'll freshen up other rooms too.

I'd like to say that I'm going to worry less, but that's never going to happen. Last year was a bit crap for a few reasons that I didn't go into details about here. I'd love to say we can put it behind us and look forward, but some things take time to deal with. But we're getting there. The ongoing crap with idiot next door shows no signs of stopping. This morning I spotted a McDonalds bag stuffed down the side of our wall, right next to where she parks her car. I looked inside and found a receipt, for the 19th December at a McDonalds in Kent. No prizes for guessing who has family in that area. She's so incredibly thick that she does these things with the receipt still inside, giving the date and the last four digits of a mastercard. Good thing she's not a criminal, she leaves so many clues at the crime scene. I was going to just put it in the bin, but thought you know what, lets stuff it down the back of her brown bin so not only does she know it was found, but it was given back to the rightful owner. About half an hour later they returned from their weekend away. Bet they were a more than a little surprised to see the change we'd made in the back garden in such a short space of time, I hope it's got right up her hairy nostrils.

While I'll miss the busyness of Christmas, I'm also ready for a rest from it. The last of the turkey has gone now, because did Christmas even happen if you didn't make a turkey curry in the days afterwards?!

It feels I've been in the kitchen all day every day, though that's not the truth at all. Well, it sort of is, if I haven't been cooking I've been raiding the fridge! Now the last of our guests has been and gone, I'm not planning on doing any more 'big' cooking for a while. Apart from roast beef and potatoes because I've got that in the fridge, but you know what I mean, it's about paring back, eating less, less indulgence etc. That's what I'm looking forward to.

And I'm looking forward to getting the front garden sorted out properly. We have the path to finish off, and plants to buy for underneath the bay windows. Lots to do, but nothing as drastic as the changes we've done over this year.

Today I've caught up with the laundry. It wasn't too bad as I still put washing on each day, including Christmas Day if needed. But the ironing hadn't been done, and dry stuff needed putting back. I've changed sheets and just been out to give the bin men their gift as I was confused earlier in the month and thought we had more time than we did. Feels like I'm getting back some normalness and order.

This marks the end of my festive posts, and is a good juncture for me to step away from the blog for a while. My main concern for the start of the year is to get Bill through all he's dealing with right now. And Violet will be back at college soon too. Lots going on. So you will see me when you see me.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, and all the very best for a healthy and happy 2023.