Tread softly

I don't know about you but I can tell it's Christmas when I put my sewing machine away. If you think this is a simple matter of moving item A to storage area B you clearly have no idea what it's like to live in a small space... I'm grateful on your behalf for the largesse life has bestowed on you and give thanks for my slide puzzle skills! Actually thinking about it, I'm grateful I don't live in a bigger place as it's hard enough keeping the one I have warm and clean...and on a bad day it seems a very long way from one part of it to another, including from floor to ceiling! I'm grateful I managed to stash all extraneous craft items away today without recourse to stepladders. 

This time of year we're told to remember those who are alone, and hopefully we are all doing so and making sure they're not if they don't want to be, but I'd also like to send my warmest compassion to those who are with people they don't want to be, or with people who don't want to be with them. I'm grateful for all the happy time I've spent on my own, some Christmases included, and I'm grateful that as my body requires more staying at home, my spirit becomes more fond of solitude too.

I give thanks for my disability benefits, and for my credit card and overdraft facility as they don't get paid in until tomorrow and cash is only flowing one way right now. I'm grateful I ordered my lush new boots when pennies were more plentiful. They are so soft and light and 'elfin' as Dorothy described them, though difficult to do up as laces always are these days...think next time I put them on I might sleep in them and save effort! The colours have come out a bit unrealistically bright in the flash but I couldn't wait until daylight to show them off for some reason...