Snatching a moment...

I allowed myself a leisurely start this morning, largely because I'd woken in a panic sometime in the dark (maybe 5ish) convinced that we had promised to go to Edinburgh today and wouldn't be back till Friday because we were going on a regular fishing trip with family. All total baloney, but it took me ages to convince myself that it wasn't happening as I frenziedly tried to remember what day it was. Stress? Moi??

Having composed myself, had breakfast (including the last tiny disc of bread which was all that we had - I've made more for tomorrow), I started ticking off the Christmas huvtaes with putting together the Christmas pudding from the recipe in the Glasgow Cookery Book (the Seven Cup Pudding, substituting half a cup of brandy for half of the milk). Slight trauma again when I discovered that the lid of my more recent pudding basin is disintegrating; the older one (ie the 52 year old one) has developed  a strange white powdery surface which comes off on the fingers and might poison us all. I solved it, after discussion with Di on the phone, by wrapping the whole thing in foil while steaming. It smells great (darn: I've not put it away since I left it cooling - will have to go downstairs again). 

Lunch was the usual minimalist affair, and it wasn't long before we were off again, walking up to the church in the rain to try out an idea for Midnight Mass. Despite our being pretty expeditious it was growing dark before we'd finished, but I took a moment before we left to photograph the tree and the lit-up Prayer Corner at the back of the nave and wish, as I do at some point every year, that I could just have a Christmas retreat somewhere peaceful and holy. It doesn't last, this feeling, and I love our Christmas, but I find the lead up to it more stressful with every passing year. Age again, I reckon - after all, I'm not cooking the dinner!

I spent an hour or so when we got in wrapping presents and cursing the Sellotape, which is so fiercely sticky that I can never stop the end of it vanishing in between bits - even if I'm just cutting them off to stick on the table till I'm ready. Then it was time for dinner and online Compline followed by the usual collapse. 

At least I don't need to worry about brandy butter till after Christmas - just learned that Ewan's making it for us all. I finished my brandy in the pud and I shop too early to buy booze, if I ever get up in time to be early...