The Reason

When I started this blog post a few days ago I was in the middle of a cooking experiment (toad in the hole!) so I only had a few minutes in which I could get some musings on the blog!
I managed this:

"My Christmas plan is coming along well:

Go to the German Christmas Market in Birmingham and take photos ✓

Get a real Christmas tree and decorate it with red and gold ✓

Go out Carol Singing whenever the opportunity presents itself ✓ (and I'm going again tonight!)

Do something kind and out of the blue

Read the book of Luke in the Bible

Buy a Santa hat and wear it somewhere embarrassing ✓ (German Market, and possibly tonight too!)

Bake something Christmassy

Have all gifts ready to go by 14th December so I have a week to work out what's been forgotten (Nearly all bought!)

I've got to work on the being kind bit but it's all progressing to some extent!

This weekend was so great. We went to pick our Christmas tree from a forest not far from where we live. It's a family tradition for me- for as long as I can remember we've had the same fiasco where we all want to bring home the biggest tree in the forest and my poor mother has to live with it! But, it was the first year that I've been there to get a Christmas tree that's for a family that I'm the co-head of."

I still haven't managed to do anything randomly kind but will try and achieve this before Christmas time is out!

I cannot believe how many deadlines I have to meet before Christmas time! I got home last night at around 7pm after running up to medical school to have one of my compulsory Personal Mentor meetings. "How is your work-life balance?" is such a great question to get as you've driven from hospital to medical school when you should be going home to your husband.

Today I had to do a presentation on Chronic Kidney Disease which I managed to finish writing this morning. Tomorrow I have one on 'Skin in Systemic Disease'. The good thing is that I'm not phased by presentations at all anymore. They're just a fact of life. Which reminds me of something an amazing diabetes consultant said today about people getting 'fed up' of using insulin: "Well, it's just like brushing your teeth. You do that every day and you don't just wake up one day and say, 'I'm fed up of this!' " - It made me (and the patient) smile.

In all honesty - I just want it to be Christmas. The run up to it has been nice and everything but I'm ready for some serious paper-hat wearing and wrapping-ripping. I got so excited about Christmas that I gave Ben one of his presents early: Mumford and Sons latest album. The lyrics "Love the one you hold and I will be your gold, To have and to hold..." always reminds me of Ben and how important our marriage is to me. It's love. And that's what Christmas is about.