And still the virus locks us in...

Daughter 2 sent us an Advent present-a-day box, and the one for Christmas Eve was this: a star for each grandchild. 

I hung them on my glass wreath. 

We walk every day, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, though the sun is still very low in the sky. It's getting better, though - we're reclaiming the light from you, Australia and New Zealand. 

It was 3.24pm when we neared the end of our walk yesterday and the sun still hadn't set - it wasn't nearly as dark as it looks in the photo above. Still, you have some effort to make yet, sun. Work harder.

I had a low day on the 23rd, thinking how much of the little ones' lives we were missing. At my age, it's impossible not to wonder from time to time how much longer we'll have to live - a bit melodramatic, I know (my parents lived to 87 and 90 so with any luck I should manage a few more years). Normally I try to be grateful for still being here - every day's a bonus and all that. But in these times, it's easy to dwell on the gloomy side of things, what with the virus changing and becoming more infectious. 

Anyway, we were allowed for today to have another family in the house so Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and the Edinburgh Two came to Christmas dinner, which was lovely. We're so lucky to have them here at least - even though only the children will be allowed inside the house in the next while. The children got the presents they wanted. And we had a nice Zoom with the members of the extended family, who should all have been here at the moment. 

Here's Biggest Granddaughter lost in a book about amazing women who changed the world. Little girls these days have a lot to live up to. At that age, my generation just thought they might bake a few cakes, have children and maybe also a job. (Or was that just me?) Julia Donaldson's "Zog and the Flying Doctors" was on tv when I was pottering round the kitchen this afternoon and at one point the princess heroine (who wanted to be a doctor) got shut up indoors by her misguided uncle and had to "sew pretty cushions and arrange pretty flowers" and I thought, I feel quite sorry for little girls who see these things being devalued. I know that those sorts of books are just trying to redress the balance of previous children's literature and that it's good to allow girls to have aspirations but... well. We can't all change the world. Someone has to wash the kitchen floor. 

I did in fact have a career as a teacher, working very long hours, as well as keeping house and mothering. But the job wasn't really an aspiration (though I enjoyed it and worked hard at it and it was very interesting) - more a sense of duty, really. By the time we were teenagers I suppose we knew that we would be career women, and from my school class of girls came a professor of agriculture, a lecturer in electrical engineering, several doctors, various administrators and teachers, at least two accountants and so on. And this is from children who'd been reared on "Janet and John" and Enid Blyton, featuring very stereotypical character roles. We seemed to work out that this was fiction and that there were other opportunities in life.

I do long to live long enough to find out what the grandchildren are interested in when they're bigger. Big Grandson is surely going to still like transport? but he also loves his computer so maybe he gets that interest from his father. Biggest Granddaughter is very keen on Lego and reading - an architect like her auntie? an archivist like her mum? The others are all still little, but possibly the two whose parents are doctors (and have scientist grandparents on one side and other scientist relatives on the other) might be likely to go into science. And Littlest Granddaughter - who knows? Daughter 2 is an architect and Son-in-Law 2 is an actor, so that's a mixed bag. It's so interesting. Must keep eating the broccoli.