December! Thanks!

My motivation for reflecting at the end of each month is getting thinner and thinner, but I managed to keep it up again this year, and it has been a good way of looking back at a chunk of time, acknowledging the struggles and the fun and the boring, as well as practically not having too many photos on my phone and making sure everything is safely backed up once a month :) habits are good for us.

I started the month with a couple of sick days. I was just sore throat and achy, and there was HEAPS of covid around esp at work, so I did a PCR and enjoyed 2 days in bed, starting the crochet of Sweep's jumper for his Christmas present, and I also watched all of Fisk on iview. It was very pleasant. Unfortunately, this was my second throat infection in 3 months and my throat never really healed properly from the first virus, I'd get croaky after singing for example. So it's a month later and I still have a cough, which is just because my throat is irritated by everything including air.

I went to the dog school Christmas party with JK and sweep. I sat on a rock that was already claimed by some other people and when they found out they were extremely rude and went and got a chair and sat directly in front of me. Lovely. After an hour of watching dogs play dog games in Christmas clothes, I went for a walk and talked on the phone to a guy in Sydney that some friends wanted me to meet. He was nice and we had a good chat. Later in the week I messaged him hi how is your week, and got no reply, so there you go. I was told he was reticent, but replying to a message is the least amount of effort. I decided not to message again, because I believe start as you mean to go on, and I'm not going to do all the work.

This was the work team Christmas party, which was nearly cancelled because of so much Covid, but we ended up doing it anyway, and then a week or so later, we had a pizza party with the rest. This was bowling, putt putt, pizza and chips, and it was fun! I started out a zero at bowling, and finished with a good run of strikes and spares.

I kind of cruised to the end of the year work-wise. Caught up on things, last minute requests, enough to do but not mad rush. I took a couple of days off as well. One day was to go to the Ben Abraham Christmas Concert in Marrickville with Katie, on a Tuesday night before Christmas. So I drove down after work, which was a horrible drive (made me not keen to have a boyfriend in Sydney), to Punchbowl, had fried chicken for dinner, made it to Marrickville at the last minute before 8pm, got seats in the back row (row 6 lol), and had a lovely night of live accoustic music. A lot of effort but he is one of my top 5 artists in my spotify wrapped, and he lives in LA, so I am very glad I saw him. Katie and I wore masks but surprisingly few people were masked, which I thought was crazy. Not that masks are nice, it is sad, but really, 5 days before hosting Christmas during a covid wave, I was nervous.

It was also lovely to get to know Katie, and the next morning I had breakfast with Denise, I forget the cafe but the menu was really good. Nothing basic, everything has tasty spices.

We drove to Gymea for portuguese tarts and then I had an early lunch with JB. It was a weird Wednesday in Sydney, that felt like it should be a Saturday but it wasn't. I am very thankful that I saw these friends down in their hood. Real face time.

The big family news is my brother and G are engaged! He's very happy and we have a wedding to look forward to next year.

Here is a household Christmas photo we got at the Warner's Bay markets. Imagine Percy sitting on my finger. It was freezing and windy! 

I have no photos, but a major effort for me was the Christmas Eve music. I lined up a band combining both 6pm bands, so everyone is amazingly talented, and I picked songs, but there was a little bit of song changing, and the only practice was on the night. 8 musicians is a lot, and nobody knows Christmas carols really, and one was an item. So we started a 7pm to make sure we had time for set up, working on the item well, and then locked in the other 4 carols pretty quickly. It went very well! Another plan came together. I have done a lot of music organising this year, it has been a lot of exercising my muscles of working with people, trusting God and others, trying not to be so much of a perfectionist but still being obsessed with good music. It was a 2022 goal, to organise things without as much stress. A vague goal, but I think I achieved it. You can't have no stress, I found out from the EAP counsellor. But it's about not being crazy anxious, and being OK with letting things go a bit. And I have now realised, that if you pick the right people, it can't go too wrong.

I was glad when it was over. On to the fun!

Here is Sweep unwrapping his Christmas jumper!

Here is most of my family (not the part with little kids) at my table on Christmas Day! JK and I went to church at 9am, while her turducken baked. I made devilled eggs and set the table.

We had a pot luck this year instead of pies and wedges, a new tradition. Mum made salad and potato bake, Ginny made a baked veggie and cous cous salad, JK made turducken, I made devilled eggs and got the drinks and chips, and Heather made a pavlova and fruit. It was lovely!

JK and I went to a couple of different dog beaches, and with Heather we went to Budgewoi. I wore so much sun protection (sunscreen, hat rashie, towel over my legs) that even though it was the middle of the day, not a touch of sunburn!

Mum, Heather and I kayaked Lorn to Morpeth early on Friday. 

I'm thinking that after many years of just being resigned to a new year and just hoping I cope with whatever bad things happen, I'm ready to be a bit proactive this year. My health was pretty good this year, I've been able to go to a lot of pilates with very little fatigue, and I've decided I am ready to sell my dream unit and buy my dream small house next year or the year after, should one come along. So on my first week of holiday, after Christmas before NY, in between reading Throne of Glass, doing some tidying up, pilates and water based outings, I have bought The Broke Generation ebook and bought a budgeting spreadsheet and started filling it in. I haven't done a budget in years and just cruised, living within my means OK. But if I get more mortgage, cost of living increase, I don't know I just want to be clearer about where my money is going.

And then NYE, hooray, finally, I've missed fireworks for so many years now, JK, Ros and I took sandwiches and a bag of chips down to the levee for the evening and enjoyed the fireworks show.