At least the weekend was a little better than the one before. We are having difficulty in coping as a family – two parents with long lists of physical illnesses plus depression, one son struggling with many aspects of autism, and the other son far away from us. I am so glad that he appears to be happy. Christmas is a bitter-sweet time for us – the image of rosy-cheeked children, a cosy room, the crackling fire, a huge decorated tree, and massive piles of stylishly wrapped presents is a burden to me. I tried to recreate that image when our lads were small and managed to get very close to it. But now, with just us four and no wider family wanting to see us, I just want to cry when I think of it all.

I will put a brave face on and try my best to be cheerful and my usual silly self, but it gets harder every year that my wider family stays away.

Right (gets a grip of herself). That’s enough of the maudlin stuff!

I have a few items on order for Christmas and I will show you those in a later post. One order that I can write about, although it’s not very exciting, is yet another from Lands’ End. These stretch cord trousers, that I already have in navy and brown? Well, I couldn’t resist a 50% off sale offer and so I have ordered them in a light grey. I couldn’t get the iPad to save the image from the site, so I will simply show the brown version. Yes, they are not very elegant, but they are so very comfortable and suit my lifestyle (sitting around a lot) very well indeed. In fact, with a jumper or other top covering the elasticated waist, they actually look quite nice. They have even been showcased on The Vivienne Files, so they must be OK!

Dark mahogany sport knit cords – Lands’ End

Tomorrow, I will try to get out of bed so that I can get dressed properly and write an Outfit of the Day post.

Best wishes,

💜❤️💙💚💛