a lovely day

so, my eldest and I have our ups and downsI don't bore you with all of it, some of it slips in everynowandagain
.
life has a tendency to do that sometimes, doesn't it
.

now, I know The Teen can be very manipulative - and he knows I know and plays me anyhow; he knows that things have fallen apart for me over the last few years, he has lived it, he has (sadly) witnessed my various extreme seasonal disasters, and he loves to twist that particular knife; but, despite this, he must be able to see that I really want Christmas to be a good one - just like I try and make every day a good one - and perhaps he wanted to create a little bit of that. . .

. . .or is it just that he knew if he asked me to go shopping with him, everyone would get better presents

teens, gotta love 'em, eh

anyhow - we've done it all over the last couple of days: we've bought cards, individual and special, wrapping paper and ribbon, thoughtful gifts (his thoughts!); we've had coffee/hot chocolate breaks and chatted; we've taken tubes and buses (on one of which we sat right at the front, on either side of the aisle, and when people sat in the spare seats next to each one of us we texted backwards and forwards during the rest of the journey) and walked backwards and forwards comfortably and amicably and, best of all, respectfully

oh, and why Mr T? he featured heavily on The Teen's choice of cards, wrapping paper and gifts. . . but - I hope - not mine!