Medical appointment went well. It turns out I'm not absorbing oestrogen at all, so I no longer have to rub gel into my arms every morning. I am to have bioidentical HRT tablets and there should be a noticeable improvement within a week.
A second landscape gardener came to quote to build a patio. He grew up in this location and was telling us that where we live used to be a car showroom and the site of municipal works. We bought this place three years ago and we have framed maps of it from 1902 on the walls so we love hearing about the history.
DH brought down the Christmas tree, lights and decorations from the loft (where I have never ventured). Put up the tree and decorated it with DSD. She was such a help and really enjoyed it, finishing by putting Mr Snowman at the foot of the tree. She's had him since she was six. I explained that the tree is about us as a family and it has my things, her dad's things, her things and our things. Every year we add something new and it's our family history. Mr Snowman is there to guard the presents when they arrive.
As always, we thanked past Myrtle Strumpet and Mr Strumpet for tidying everything away so well last year that very little untangling of lights had to be done.
Present Mr & Ms Strumpet decided on improvements for next year, as always, so Future Mr & Ms Strumpet will thank us for such things as putting the plug for the Christmas tree lights in the Christmas tree box, not the lights box, where other plugs were available and it took a bit of time to establish which plug belonged to which set of lights. Mr Strumpet also wrote on the cardboard around which the room lights are wrapped "power supply at the end". Past Mr Strumpet had wound the lights round the cardboard with the power supply first last year, so.he had to unwind 20m of lights before he could put them up. Future Mr Strumpet will be pleased.
A very dinky little Christmas tree was delivered for Mr Strumpet's home office. Very cute but we ordered warm white lights and this year we put the bright white lights on his office. It looks cute, but I wish I'd thought to order a bright white version.
I have also had all the presents for him delivered already and it's not even December. A pair of brandy glasses arrived yesterday just as I came home from an appointment so he accepted the package. It said "fragile, glass" all over it and it was as light as a feather. I've hidden it and just hope he'll have forgotten by Christmas. If it had been me accepting a package for him, I would have guessed its contents correctly by now.
Saturday night is film night so we shall watch Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan. Apparently it's quite good and Stephen Graham has a cameo in it for 10 minutes with Kathy Burke.
Pic of the tree and lights with Mr Snowman ready for duty.