CRISM!

Mercifully, I have had just two unsolicited spats on Twitter, both many years ago. The first was when someone posted that Jane Austen was going to be on the new ten pound note and how furious this would make "men". I promptly stepped into the "not all men" trap, which, I should be clear, I came to respect once I was aware of it.

The second was over use of the term 'crism' to denote the acceptable period for Christmas related activities, that being December the 1st until January the 5th (with the exception of baking a Christmas cake, which needs to be done in advance). I adopted that term because that is what my eldest child called Father Christmas when she was very young.

Anyway, some chap on Twitter took exception to this because - I learned - crism is another name for myrrh. He suggested I stick to using 'advent', which, of course, is not the same thing at all. Those were more civil times, though, and I managed to get him to a point where we could agree to disagree.

Anyway, I am telling you all of this because - in my book, at least - today, December the first, is the earliest acceptable day for buying a Christmas tree, which is what Dan, Abi, and I did today after they'd finished at school. We went, as we always do, to Crabtree Farm and bought both a tree and some new decorations.

I still had a work meeting to do after that and then it was time to eat so it was a little later on when we had a glass of mulled wine and decorated the tree (see Extra). I am delighted with the results!

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-13.8 kgs
Reading: 'The Vanishing Half' by Brit Bennett