Up The Farway Tree

Snow Baby

So, we had our first snowfall this week and Seb was loving it! He gets rather excited about snow in the garden and tends to just run round and round at high speed with utter joy, although this year he took to rolling around instead...

My wee snow baby in photos:







I got the Christmas tree lights last weekend as planned and today we put the tree up! I know some people probably think that's a bit early but hey ho, I love Christmas. It's such a far cry from decorating the tree last year, where I was trying not to get the oxygen tubing caught around the tree as I hung the decorations....and that's all I did. Andrew put the tree up, hung the lights and tinsel and unwrapped everything and I just put some decorations on....yet it was such hard work! I remember last year being quite sad that I didn't feel very excited about Christmas but it is very hard to get into the spirit of things when you feel unwell. This year is very different and we had the tree up in a jiffy because I was there helping and, of course, organising. I also realised when unpacking the decorations that poor Andrew must have taken the tree down himself last year as I was in hospital unwell after New Year. I could tell by the way the decorations were packed haha - they were actually much neater than my efforts, which basically involve throwing them all in the box ;-)

In the spirit of the season I made little mince pie cakes today - not mince pies with pastry but little sponge type cakes with mince meat in them....yum! I still had some eggs to use so have also made some banana and pecan muffins and am just waiting on them to cool at the moment. It's mostly because I bought a new baking book and am currently working my way through the entire thing, much to Andrews delight.

Seb has his last dog training session this coming week - I can't believe that will be 9 sessions! He was a bit naughty last week and started barking and running at other dogs - he has never done this before in the class! Not sure if it was related to him getting a fright earlier in the week when a huge Rough Collie (walking off lead) ran at him bearing it's teeth. I ran at the dog (maybe not the wisest move but only thing I could think of) and it ran off. Clearly I am more scary than I thought. Anyway, not sure if this had put him on edge but he was acting really weird. Luckily we managed to nip it in the bud and he was fine for the rest of the evening. The trainer said she can't believe the change in him, and also in the way I handle him. She thinks I now realise he is a dog and not a baby. She hasn't seen me carrying him around the house rocking him gently though ;-) Seriously though, she is right in the sense that I am more consistent and assertive with him now. I was like this when I first got him (4 years ago now) but when I got more unwell I really didn't have the energy to battle with him over things and he got away with far too much, not to mention the fact he didn't respect me as much because I wasn't able to walk and play with him as much. He was more like a wee huggy bear to keep my company! I would say he now seems much happier because he knows who's in charge (although he still likes to test me!) and he knows what the rules are. Doesn't mean he always follows them... but then I wouldn't want him to stop being Seb!

I have a date - 9th Jan - for my fundoplication operation. At least that gives me time to enjoy all the festivities and at least I'm not going to be hanging about all January waiting, especially as I plan to get back to work early next year - hopefully start of February by which point I should be fully recovered (I hope!) I am down at Newcastle on Tuesday this week for transplant clinic and the barium swallow test so I will report back when I am home.

In the meantime I will spread some festive joy and leave you with some pics of my decorations:

Mr Reindeer - who has springy legs!

My Granda made this crib from an orange box and the little nativity figures were my mums when she was a child