We've been sorting out the Christmas Deccies in the loft this evening. We always put ours up on the first Saturday in December so we decided to get up there tonight and sort out what we're going to use this year and what is clapped out and needs replacing.

Meg has also presented us with a plan of all the things we are going to have to get for her to decorate her bedroom in a manner that befits a girl who is going to be having her friends round for a Christmas holiday sleepover now that Cornwall is out of lockdown. These are allowed under the Tier One regulations in Christmas week and word about this has gotten out in the playground.

Amanda tried to reason that Covid 19 still makes it dangerous to mix too closely in social situations to which the little madam replied that Cornwall and the Isle of Wight are the only two places in UK that are in Tier One of restrictions and Katie and Laura in her class are having sleepovers so why can't she...?

We strongly suspect the invitations have already been made out and are hidden somewhere until she is satisfied that her bedroom has been decorated to a suitably presentable standard for a pre-Christmas soiree.

And so Saturday will see us not only decorating the house in the usual way for Christmas, but will also entail more than a little expense on lights and other fripperies to ensure madam's social requirements are met.

Oh well.... it's as good a reason as any to hit the shops. We haven't done much of that in a Christmas sense yet this year.

The only sad thing this year, will be that 2020 is going to be our first ever Christmas together that we haven't had any cats in the house. We bought Jerry and Tizzie (or to give them their full names, Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser) as kits when we first moved into our flat in Falmouth back in 2005. The average life expectancy of Felis Domesticus is between 10 and 15 years so they both did pretty well. Jerry died in 2019 and we lost Tizzie in the summer.

It will feel strange this year not having Tizzie jumping on the tree as we try to put it up and decorate it. Every year, any loose strands of tinsel and / or low hanging, shiny baubles were always fair game to him. On more than one occasion, he'd launch himself off the sofa into the branches if he saw something hanging there that took his fancy. It was never possible to predict what that might be because it was never the same thing.... never followed any pattern. Of the two, Tizzie was the 'character'.

We miss the cats. We haven't replaced them yet but probably will next year. New kittens for a new year. We'll let Meg name them... I doubt that she'll go with Jellicle names.