Friday Smiles 2022: Week 52

So; here we are at the end of another year. It is fair to say it has been a bit of a roller-coaster for most of us, but it is good that we are still all here and smiling at the end of it.

We have had a peaceful week as Christmas is traditionally fairly quiet here as our Spanish neighbours gear up for the arrival of the Three Kings on 6th January.

Christmas morning was the start of a warm and sunny day, one of the best we have had, so we went into the yard at the back of the house to take our traditional selfie that I use to send greetings to family and friends near and far.

I made a traditional roast beef dinner which is a real treat for us. Although I do a 'Sunday roast' every week, it is rarely with beef which is in relative short supply here - there is little grazing so we don't see cows in our area. I was quite proud of the Yorkshire puddings I made which tried to grow out of the oven! We were able to eat our meal out in the fly-free porch too which was an added blessing.

We managed to have video chats with all our boys so it was good to see them all enjoying time with their families.

Of course Boxing day is a very British tradition and is not celebrated here so it was back to normal in the village on Monday, though some shops only opened for half a day to compensate for Christmas day being a Sunday. We stayed at home, and with it being another lovely day we sat out on the porch all afternoon. I had sent for a kit online to make three macrame Christmas trees. It is years since I did this craft and I fancied having another go. The kit came with instructions that were little help as the print needed a magnifying glass to read it, and the pictures showed a tree being made in very dark green rope so the stitches couldn't be seen. Luckily I searched on youtube and found a video for making a very similar one, so after a few rocky starts and a lot of untying, my first tree was made. Making the other two was relatively straight forward and now they are hanging by our chimney.

I hope you all had some lovely presents for Christmas. The one I love is this huge red Oodie. It may not be the most flattering garment but it is so soft and warm, and is big enough to slip over whatever I am wearing. You may think that is a bit over the top for someone living in Spain, but no matter what the day is like outside, our house is cold, especially first thing in the morning, and particularly in the kitchen. We have no heating until we put the fire on in the sitting room at night, so now I slip into my oodie and curl up to enjoy my first cuppa and some breakfast feeling cosy and warm. The hardest part is persuading myself to take it off again!

And on the subject of clothing, these socks caused some merriment.  I have quite a lot of diabetic neoropathy in my legs, especially the right one so compression socks are quite helpful. These new ones are the most comfortable I have had, but oooh.. the fun we had getting them on! I needed the help of Chris's hands which while not as strong as they used to be, are a lot stronger than mine. Once on, the socks stayed put all day and then we had another pantomime to get them off! It was worth it though for the relief they gave me.

Last night we went outside to change the gas bottle  for the fire when it ran out.  For safety reasons the bottles are usually housed in a small covered cubby hole outside, and the one for the fire is under the sitting room window. As we passed the little garden area in the front corner of the yard, I could smell a rose. So using the flash on my phone camera I took this picture. I have often quoted a verse from my mum's Patience Strong calendar which says "God gave us our memories that we might have roses in December". Well out here we don't need our memories for that. We have several roses in bloom, and although the flowers are not as big and showy as the summer ones, they are still beautiful and fill the night air with their scent.

We are particularly grateful this week to our insurance agent. He lives a couple of doors up from us and his ofice is a wee bit further on, so he knows us by sight, but apart from taking out car and house policies with him, we have not had much dealings with him. But when we went back and explained that the damage to our car was more than we had at first thought, he followed us to the work shop in Vera, helped us to explain the problem and then drove us home. Yesterday the garage phoned but we had difficulty understanding what they were saying, so again Nicolas telephoned them and translated for us. When it turned out that their 'expert' had seen the car and felt it was safe to drive so we could collect it to use, and he would have it back to repair straight after the Three Kings fiesta, Nocloas drove Chris over again to collect it. He really did go beyond the call of duty and we were very grateful to him. It is good to know there are some really helpful people around us when we need them.

I finally I have something very exciting to share. Tolly is going to have a little playmate. Tolly is big and strong but at two years old he is still a kitten really. He wants to play and poor Tango is old and just wants to be left in peace. So somehow I have persuaded Chris to let me have my final dream of a cat. Meet Leonardo (he will be known as Leo). He is a Maine Coon kitten, and will be joining us at the end of January. I think they could be a well matched pair.

And on that happy note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2023. Keep Smiling!