26th December

So that’s it, Christmas all finished for another year. Apart from one mince pie and enough chocolate to last until Easter, our family celebrations have now finished. Today was a mostly more relaxing time as my youngest grandchildren are now in Leeds with my son-in-law’s family. But it still felt really special and we had a good time feasting on home-made snack food and playing family games. So my video snapshot is of my eldest grand-daughter swiping colourful balloons using an Xbox Kinect. It all looked a little too energetic for my taste in games and next I found myself dodging out of the way when they progressed to stamping on rabbits as they appeared in burning holes in the lounge carpet. Amazing what a web-cam input to a video game can do nowadays. I’d rather not think about the dance game with my 6’ 4” adult son represented by a rather under-dressed female avatar. But at least he moved on to become a cheerleader, though that was frankly just weird. For some reason he was quite good at it all! And despite the many years of his addiction to Lego and me as a partner we failed to win at Lego Creationary… it’s a Lego take on Pictionary and a new novelty for us.

Well the day has been good fun for sure and I managed to remain seated for most of it so that’s helpful. I’d love to be strong and energetic again so that I can also look foolish dancing in front of the TV! What an ambition… maybe next year. Today I feel rather tired though quietly content at everything we’ve done. The only real disappointment was in my having to call it a day around early evening as my parents have their annual Boxing Day party for the whole of their family. That includes many dozens of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; so many that I easily run out of names for all the faces I recognise. Of course not all of them turn out every year so I’m not the only one missing but it would have been nice to catch up with a couple of my sisters who I get to see only infrequently. Over many years I’ve found that pushing my activity levels at Christmas has caused M.E. problems that last for several months. I’m not well by any stretch of the imagination but then again I don’t feel anything like as ill as I have done in the past. I remain determined to beat this particular scourge upon my life.

And I will travel through my season of mourning. Today's been relatively good. With my wonderful, supportive family surrounding me and with the God of Heaven living in my heart I am truly one of the most privileged and blessed persons on Planet Earth. The Lord is guiding me into a glorious future. This world has many trials and I’m obviously in the middle of one of them; it’s not the first I’ve faced, though certainly the most challenging, but whatever comes my way I know that my God is bigger than any of my problems. He is truly my comforter, my protector, my provider, my strength, yes basically my all sufficient one.

Psalm 30:5 ‘Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ (NLT)