#Christmas Preparations, Medical Mutterings, And #Crafting

I called to chase up my surgery date, like I said I was going to.

Turns out the reason I don't have one yet is that my consultant left the NHS, so his patients had to be given to other people, putting things behind schedule. Nice of them to let people know. *rolls eyes*

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, since I'm sure you don't want to hear about my attempts to talk to people who have the authority to deal with things, but just happen to be in meetings, and will supposedly return calls, but never do...

I've got an appointment for a pre-op health assessment on December 18th 2018 (next Tuesday) at 11:15am, and my surgery is booked for January 24th 2019 (I have to be at the hospital by noon).

So, I have the blood test coming up this Thursday to check my iron level, the pre-op medical assessment next Tuesday, what will hopefully be my last of the shots on the Friday between Christmas and the new year, and my surgery scheduled for just over a month's time. So... Yeah... Lots of medical stuff coming up. But at least I now have a surgery date, and can look forward to things finally getting sorted early in the new year. Won't that be nice?

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I've done my Christmas shopping, and posted all cards and presents I'm sending out. Well, there are a couple of gift vouchers I'm sending out closer to Christmas. But I'm done other than that. Some people have even received their stuff already. The rest is on its way to people, apart from two that I'll be hand delivering closer to Christmas.

Arrangements are made for our Christmas dinner, which we're having on December 21st. We're having it at Oscars, since we love going there, and saw the option to book for Christmas dinner when we were there in November. Yes, we picked that date on purpose. We could have had one closer to Christmas Day, but I requested the 21st. We're really looking forward to it. I've booked the vegetarian version, which is a nut roast, and Kelly's booked the turkey dinner option, since he's not vegetarian. Even Lilie will be included, since she'll be getting a little bit of turkey. Well, it's Christmas for her too, right? *wink*

I'll soon be putting up some Christmas decorations. Although, I'm not putting up many this year, because things are still a bit chaotic from all the reorganizing from box unpacking now we're not having to move. Then there's the going in to hospital preparations... So, yeah... I want to have some up, but I'll only be putting up a few this year. Regardless, I'll get Kelly to take some photos of what we put up, so you can see them. I'm hoping to put them up in the next few days... Either tomorrow, or over the weekend. Anyway, once those are up, we'll be all ready for the holidays.

We got our first Christmas card in the post last week. I meant to share a photo of it today, but didn't get a chance to have Kelly help me sort that in time for it to be included, so you'll have to wait to see that. Thanks though, Rita!

Plus, the first mince pies, gingerbread men, and chocolate Yule logs of the season have been eaten.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Just as well really, since Christmas Day is only two weeks away! Can you believe it? Only two weeks!

How are your holiday preparations coming along? Are you ready? Are you feeling festive?

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I have a new bedside cabinet.

The downstairs neighbour... Not the one who moved in where nasty neighbour was, but the one downstairs again, who had to deal with her alongside us... Gave it to us. Said he didn't have as much space as he thought in his bedroom. He'd brought two, but didn't really have room for both, and asked if we could use the extra one.

Mine was old and in need of replacing, but we hadn't gotten around to replacing it. So, we accepted it gratefully.

It's a little lower than my last one. But not by much, and I don't mind. It's nice, and was really generous of him to give it to us. Plus, mine was seriously considering falling apart, and this one is new and in great condition, so that's a definite improvement, and I'm really grateful to have a replacement for mine before it decided to retire itself.

So... Though I doubt he'll see this... Thanks, Dave!

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I'd hoped to have both the Christmas mouse and table runner kits finished by now. But I haven't managed to complete either yet.

There's progress on both kits, but I'm doing them between other things at the moment, and when Lilie isn't feeling too energetic and playful. The former being by choice, because I've got some other things I want to finish up before the end of the year too, while the latter is a requirement, since sewing while having a ball thrown at you is tricky to say the least, as I'm sure even those of you who haven't tried it can appreciate.

However long they take to finish, I'll post photos when I'm done, like I promised.

By the way, my December SewMine box arrived a few days ago. In case you're interested, the kits in it this month are a penguin broach, and I think a pin cushion and needle holder. I can't remember for sure at this moment in time though, and don't want to get up and go check, because I'm making the most of one of Lilie's naps to write this, and my getting up would wake her. When this box's contents get their turn to be made, you'll get to see what it is anyhow, so never mind. Either way, the box for this month arrived, which is the main thing.

Now I know when the boxes are meant to arrive, I see that I've managed to pick ones that have my happy post spaced out nicely. My Sew Mine box is supposed to come towards the start of the month, my Makerly one is supposed to come towards the middle of the month, and my Harry Potter one is supposed to come towards the end of the month. They all did that last month, like they're supposed to, and it was great! That wasn't planned on my part. That's just how it works out when you get boxes for them regularly, because of the dates they send them out. They aren't perfectly spaced, but it's nice that it spreads out my happy post throughout the month like that.