"'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, only one creature was stirring, with keyboard and mouse..."

Do other bloggers often type out an entire post, scheduled for a future date, perhaps read it back for proofreading just before it's due to go live then bin it at the last minute? 

I'd written a huge piece about the stresses of Christmas, exacerbated by a year - and a worldwide epidemic - that shows no signs of letting up, and (let's face it) won't let up much well into 2021. 

The piece I wrote was filled with sadness and misery and so I thought I'd sit down and try again, and write a positive piece for once (because we all flippin' need a bit more positive stuff in our lives don't we?)

Into my 2nd week of recovery from my operation, several things have hit my lugholes that have made me glad to be here, glad to be feeling (relatively) well, glad to see my scars fading a bit (though it's still a bit disconcerting when bits of me keep dropping off in the shower - thankfully none of the bits I love and cherish!)

Despite everything that's going on at the moment we three have scraped together the best Christmas we can. We've bought presents online (because only a complete lunatic would try and brave the shops at the moment), we've managed to get together some amazing food (cheese, lots of cheese, I didn't go through a harrowing operation to not gorge myself on cheese!) and some of the family traditions (such as erecting our rather scratty christmas tree, and accidentally missing folk off the christmas card list) are all present and correct. 

With my wife off work at the moment, and my daughter off school the house doesn't actually get going until well after 10 most days, which is great for me because I can't lie in bed when there are things to do, and a busy mind can never not be occupied with something (lots of reading obviously, but plenty of other stuff like a new-found love of Crochet - yeah, what the hell is all that about? I feel like Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man, emerging from his cryoprison to knit like a diva - and no, I still don't understand how the three seashells work). 

We even think we have a solution to the 'extended family christmas' thing, opting to go for walks with the grandparents to natter and open presents rather than risk going round to theirs or them coming to us. In my other piece I wrote how we all felt under stress and pressure to 'do the normal thing' at Christmas and were pushing back against doing that, not through spite but because none of us want COVID and we don't want our elders to get it either, so this compromise is (undoubtedly) the sort of thing a lot of families who abide by the ever-changing complex web of ineffective rules will do themselves this Christmas. 

But look on the bright side for a moment. 2021 may eventually see an end to this, a return to some level of normality perhaps. The world will tick on, hopefully without a nutter in the Whitehouse. We'll still be stuck with our buffoonery of a government but it'll be interesting to see if America can heal itself a bit. 

For me 2021 is going to be all about learning and doing - as 2020 was. When you get to an age where there are fewer years ahead of you than behind, you begin to realise that every wasted moment is a moment you could be improving a skill you have, learning to draw a bit better, learning (god help me) to crochet something that doesn't look like the woollen equivalent of those cakes on the "Nailed It" website. Maybe I'll even pick up some new skills at work, but if there's one thing I really do wish I could change up in 2021 it'd have to be my job (though at the moment, the relative security of it is keeping us afloat and there's no way I'd want to stick a pin in that particular liferaft). 

Words of wisdom from my wife sum the end of the year up perfectly. "We have daddy home with us at Christmas, happy and healthy and that's something we didn't think we would have" and she's right. In a year where we've clapped on our doorstep for our NHS, they've come through for me, as they have for many others and they will answer the call when the COVID vaccine begins to roll out properly in 2021. If I think of the one good thing in our lives at the moment it's that they've effectively given me a life without pain, without the worry and stress of having another attack of pancreatitis, and that is worth its weight in gold. 

Here's to a merry Christmas to all of you crazy folk who find your way to this blog, and a happy 2021.