Morning light on the river

Christmas can be a very stressful time for many reasons - I get stressed as there is so much to get organised - the tree, the food, the presents. Then of course on Christmas Day there is all the cooking to be done. Thankfully the things that worry me can lessened by being super organised, lots of planning and lists (and I am aware that for some people the things they worry about cannot be as easily controlled, like affording food and presents for their loved ones). Luckily I am a very organised person, my Christmas shopping was started in October and all done before the end of November...the boys think I am crazy getting started so early but it is my way of handling everything as Christmas mainly falls on me.

Now everything is done, it is just the food shopping. I have a delivery of the Christmas meats from Waitrose on the 24th, but I did not want to risk adding the veggies and accompaniments to that order in case they ran out of stock and in case the veggies were not perfect enough for me. So I have been buying as much as I can in the weeks leading up to Christmas, store cupboard items like the chestnuts for the Brussel sprouts, the amaretti biscuits for my trifle, but this is crunch week when I need to get the fresh goods. On Monday when I went to the supermarket they had very low stock which made me a bit nervous, as I wondered if they had sold out of things already. I planned to buy my fresh produce on Friday so it is as fresh as possible - so this morning I got up early, did not walk Xena but went to Waitrose instead. The car park was surprisingly quiet, the supermarket was calm and quiet, and the shelves were heaving with stock - I bought as much as I could and will just get the remaining veggies I need on Friday. In my case I am not just buying food for Christmas dinner, but meals for the family for five days, so a lot of meal planning is involved. No such thing as Boxing day leftovers in our house as the boys eat so much there are never leftovers, so I need to think of all the meals every day while they are at home! 

As I passed the river the light looked beautiful. I have added an extra as the golden light on the willow tree was quite irresistible too.

Xena did get a long walk when I got home again, she is never in a rush to go out in the mornings, so did not mind waiting.