Spirits

I am feeling a great lightness of spirits today. In fact I feel quite joyous. Could it be because I have new skirts to play with?

Not at all. That is currently a pleasure deferred.

Yesterday was a poor day. We needed to go shopping and are unable to go on Friday. I thought that today would be horribly busy. I was not prepared for just how awful the experience would be yesterday. I believe that I have become used to the Covid-driven lower-key shopping experience and hordes of people stocking up on Oysters and Champagne was both a shock to the system and not my idea of fun. The supermarket smelled awful… really fishy! Crates of oysters were piled high on trestle tables and the scrum was worse than Tesco when the sprouts are running out.

It wasn’t a complete dead loss though. We bought a few seasonal goodies, such as the Girolle cutter for Tete de Moine that we have been lusting after for some time. Lidl provided us with some of their awesome Mini Stollen (we love Stollen).

That’s about as festive as we get.

And that’s why I am feeling happy today. I have no Christmas stress. No Christmas over-spending strain on my budget. No unreasonable Christmas expectations to be inevitably dashed. I read on social media of people going out before breakfast today to buy turkey, getting their bread sauce on (already?) and maybe some are even boiling sprouts. No doubt many are tearing their hair out trying to wrap gifts neatly. Some might be crying because Christmas hasn’t even been delivered yet,

In fact, I am so happy in my rejection of all of this that I even found myself singing “Frosty the Snowman” as I was emptying the dishwasher 🙂

I do sometimes wonder if we do the right thing but today I can tell by the way that I feel that what we do is exactly the right thing for us.

We have a simple meal this evening, a prawn and avocado salad. Tomorrow is simpler still: Rillettes, some crusty baguette, and possibly a baked Mont d’Or if we have room remaining. Saturday is our regular Date Night and we shall push the boat out with three courses of something or other.

No overeating happening here until our wedding anniversary on the 31st.

We are currently trying to find some of the (relatively) locally-made gin and are considering driving around the countryside in pursuit of both the Orange & Bergamot and the Christmas Gins. Not because of, you know, Christmas, but because I want need to know what a Chestnut & Pine gin tastes like. Anyway, because I’m not receiving relatives, not stuffing a bird or wrapping presents or peeling sprouts… we have the freedom to up and go on a search for Christmas Spirits of a kind, should we feel that is what we wish to do.

On the other hand, I could just disappear upstairs and photograph skirts. After all, we do have Spiced Rum from yesterday’s shopping run. We are not without seasonal refreshment.