Let's all post some small positives, to help in these sad times

[musicalfrog]

I'm reading some really sad posts on another thread and I feel very downhearted and hopeless too..

I would like to try and find some light amongst the darkness, maybe distract from the news and the current situation that is dominating many of our families' lives.

I will start. I'm feeding the birds in my garden and we have a very friendly female blackbird who sits and waits for me to put seeds out every day. It warms my heart to know that I'm making a difference to her life. She is super brave and lets me get quite close to her before flying away ❤

Also, Baileys is on special at Sainsburys.

The Junior Engineer's tutor at school came back to work yesterday.
He went off in mysterious circumstances (Yr 7) and the assumption amongst the children was that it was Covid related. They were getting really worried about him.
Turns out his wife has just had their first baby and he was on paternity leave.
Term ends on Friday and I'm about 2 inches into a little woolly hat in some lovely sock yarn that I'd been saving for something special. The Junior Engineer adores Mr C and it seems not unreasonable to knit Baby C something nice in my gorgeous blue and green and white space-theme yarn.

At the weekend DS2 had a boy from his class round to play. He's seven and quite shy (he's autistic and for a long time, despite having a huge vocabulary, his speech was quite unclear so people struggled to understand him and it really knocked his confidence). He's never had a friend round before (at least, not one who wasn't also friends with DS1) and the one child who had him to play at theirs recently hurt him quite badly at school so I really wanted this to go well.

And it did go really well! The two of them got on like a house on fire (I suspect the friend might be ND, too, TBH). They didn't settle on any activity for more than about five minutes for the whole three and a half hours he was here but they had a lovely time and DS2 was so pleased.

Lovely stories

I'm off today. Courried down in bed, having tea and toast soon, plain bread.

I always miss my Mum at Christmas time (she died 16 years ago) and last night I was particularly missing being able to ask her about stuff, get her advice on things etc and even just have a cuddle from her.

I collect bears and have a bookcase with them on and one of them is an old Bagpuss that when you press his mouth, he yawns and says "oh it's rather nice to have a cuddle"

Well Bagpuss's battery had died ages ago and it merely makes a low growling sound now - hardly audible really like a squished fart. Anyway, I pressed it last night and just heard some crackling, I just shrugged and gave up - he is about 17 years old after all.

About 10 mins after I had pressed his button, I sat back down in the chair and was wondering what my Mum would think of my Christmas tree and decorations, when Bagpuss's voice box suddenly decided to work and he said loud and clear "oh it's rather nice to have a cuddle".

I know it was just coincidence, but I found it strangely comforting. I pressed it again and it didnt work, so it was just a fluke.

54 years old and I still need a hug from my Mum sometimes. and what I wouldnt give to have one

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all have something nice happen to you this Christmas - lovely thread, I shall keep following this one.

I purchased festive gin yesterday afternoon at Sainsburys. I attended a really interesting church service at the weekend as well.

In two weeks time it’ll start getting lighter earlier in the mornings. The longest day is 21st but from about 27th we gain about a minute of light a day.

@falleninlove thinking of you. My mum died 26 years ago yesterday and Christmas can be tough. Hope your dad has a calm journey, and sending you a huge huge hug from someone who’s been there twice xx

@falleninlove

Sending hugs and prayers for you.

I've been through the same thing recently...I hope you're managing to find some time to take care of yourself too...it's tough .

ktb19. 🌻 fluke/coincidence or no. That was a beautiful thing.

Today mam made a boiled egg for her breakfast and remembered to switch off the cooker.

DS gets to see the pantomime twice this year.

I’m in the observation room after my booster. There’s a M&S downstairs, so can get myself a treat before I go back to work.