December unsprisingly was all about getting into the Christmas spirit – decorating, gifts, parties – though I didn’t do much in the way of baking or making festive treats this year.
Just as well really as I was recovering from a little op …
1 December – What else do you do on the first day of December, but put up the Christmas tree?!
2 December – Huge day at work, it was a race to get things up to date as tomorrow I am having a little op …
3 December – Arrived bright and early at the Mater Private Hospital Redlands for a lumpectomy in my right breast (I had similar surgery in February last year in the left). All the staff were wearing Christmas-themed scrubs, and as I was waiting in pre-op I noticed they’d hung up heaps of candy cane decorations from the ceiling! Procedure went well and I was discharged in the evening.
4 December – The husbear worked from home so he could take care of me. I was feeling quite good considering, the worst part was a bit of a sore throat no doubt due to being intubated for surgery, ugh. Received a surprise package in the mail – an early Christmas gift – which of course I couldn’t resist opening. Put my new cat socks on right away!
5 December – Feeling much better in the morning but exhausted in the afternoon.
6 December – Follow up appointment with my surgeon. Good news – the precancerous lump has all been removed. Bad news – I may still need radium. He is referring me to a radiation oncologist (I learn the decision on 8 January, the sample tissue will be sent to the US for testing). Afterwards we went out for a treat.
Oh, and a bit of excitement when we locked up the house ready for bed, when we found a large carpet snake on the front porch! The husbear is an awesome snake wrangler, and we relocated our unwelcome visitor to some bush far enough away that hopefully it won’t find its way back …
7 December – Attended a small Christmas gathering with some of the husbear’s workmates, out in the country. There was a koala hanging out in a nearby tree, though a bit too high for me to get a decent picture.
8 December – Worn out after “peopling” yesterday. I started a new jigsaw puzzle.
9 December – Put out a few more Christmas decorations 🙂 .
10 December – Fleur kept us entertained, playing with her latest toy – a cat tunnel.
11 December – A big day and not much work! It was the last BNI meeting for the year, we had fun with a game of Bad Santa (I scored a cocktail shaker and a bag of lollies) … oh and I won the Golden Mic for best weekly presentation! The husbear and I had an appointment at a financial planner, then I had an acupuncture appointment, and got my hair done in the afternoon.
12 December – Darn it, I accidentally bumped the salt off the pantry shelf and it smashed everywhere, grrrrr …
13 December – Finished the puzzle I started on Sunday 🙂 .
14 December – BNI Christmas party at Brew Dogs Murrarie, fortunately we were seated inside as it was pelting rain when we first arrived!
15 December – Today was an exercise in frustration, doing some Christmas shopping. Spent ages at the shops, visiting lots of different stores, and hardly any had what I wanted.
16 December – Rain rain and more rain. Did I mention it’s been raining a lot lately?
17 December – I conducted the last DIY SEO training session for the year. Not everyone can make it to these sessions during the day so we record them for those who can’t attend.
18 December – The arthritis in my wrists has been quite painful again, so I’ll need to book for more PRP injections in the New Year. In the meantime I’m giving acupuncture a try … had my 2nd appointment today.
19 December –
20 December – Caught up for coffee with another digital marketing colleague, and, we sold our red BMW X6! Husbear recently got an old ute which is much more practical, so we no longer needed the big car. A bit of extra cash in our pockets before Christmas!
21 December – Husbear was clearly feeling very motivated as he cut down the two trees out the front of the house (see below). While they did provide shade from the western sun they were really overgrown, we will keep them as compact bushes once they grow back and get some sort of screen installed over the windows upstairs. We caught the late ferry over to our island getaway.
22 December – Lovely relaxing day on Coochiemudlo Island, including our first swim for the season. We might have only been there 24 hours but it was just what we needed!
23 December – The husbear is now on Christmas holidays; it was my last “official” day at work for 2024.
24 December – We went to the shops for a couple of last minute things, including a haircut for the husbear – a VERY interesting experience, blog post to come!
25 December – Christmas Day. We headed down the Gold Coast bright and early, where we joined our son, his wife, and her family, at her parents’ apartment which has gorgeous ocean views. Their little dog Ella was definitely the star of the show 😉 and she seemed to take quite a shine to me!
26 December – A leisurely day getting organised and packing up, we headed over to our beach shack on Coochiemudlo where we will be staying for the next few days. Here’s a selfie we snapped on the ferry!
27 December – At low tide we took our new (to us) yabby pump out for a spin, and caught heaps of yabbies … we then used them to go fishing and caught … absolutely nothing LOL!
28 December – A very lazy day, it IS summer holidays after all. Enjoyed the air con, a cup of tea and shortbread (taking a teensy break from my usual high protein low carb diet for the festive season).
29 December – Did a little bit of work – reconciling Xero – as a business owner I can never fully check out! Annoying to find that it’s the end of 2024 and I am STILL hitting the down arrow rather than the “4” on my keyboard. Roll on 2025 I say!
30 December – We had some visitors come to stay overnight, lovely to catch up with a BBQ and a bit of swimming and beach time. Despite wearing a hat and sunscreen my face still got quite pink … turns out my sunscreen expired a couple of years ago, oops, no wonder it didn’t work …
31 December – The highlight was another beach fishing session. By the time we got back to our beach shack and rustled up some dinner it was almost 10pm, so it was looking like we would see in the New Year … NOPE! By 11.40pm we were exhausted – all that fresh sea air – so went to bed and were both asleep by midnight 😉 . Such party animals!
As I write this, we are back home from our summer break but not yet back at work, so still taking it a bit easy for the first few days of 2025.
If there’s one thing 2024 has taught me, it’s that I’m amazingly resilient. Not necessarily a quality I wanted to have tested, but there you go.
I’m not sure what the New Year holds! I know last year I had some pretty big goals / hopes / desires / intentions and none of them really came about, so this year I am feeling much more in a YOLO (you only live once) frame of mind and will let the year unfold as it will. I’ve been thinking about a potential “Word for the Year” but have yet to settle on one. Who knows, maybe this year I won’t bother!
What is one thing that 2024 taught you?!
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