The Christmas puddings have been steaming gently for nearly 9 hours today, and have now had fresh greaseproof and foil applied. They look like they have been a success but the truth as they say is in the eating.

To that end there has been much discussion as to when the eating should begin. Hubby has decided that should be in about a weeks time and I agree with him. Not for my own ends of course as these puddings are purely for him, as he has strict instructions to build himself up before starting his course of radiotherapy. The grim truth is that half way through his course it is going to become very difficult to eat, which could lead to a feeding tube straight into his stomach. Other complications to consider with the amount of weight loss they are expecting is the mask will no longer fit securely which means the radiotherapy might not be going to the correct place. So we need to keep him at a good weight for as long as possible. The Christmas cake may well be started much earlier than is usual too…

We have also had to make the decision to keep Christmas very simple just us two. Not least because hubby is not going to want to feel like socialising, but also because of the risk of catching covid. Although there seems to be evidence that the new strain of covid is a little gentler than the others, it would mean that he had to miss a couple of weeks of treatment, if not more if I then caught it and the main thing with the treatment is that it must be continuous to do the most good.

It is a difficult choice, not to invite son no.1 for Christmas, but in truth he works and socialises so much that he is bound to catch it sooner or later. I socialise for a total of five hours a week with various clubs and an occasional, every few weeks, trip to the pub in an afternoon when it is dead as a dodo apart from a few of the boys who I have known forever. Hubby socialises less than that. I’ve even limited my Dad to a couple of hours a week of late. And I am worried, just very, very worried. I know this will probably go down like a lead balloon with son no.1 and I should have thought it through earlier. It is just a very difficult situation.

Anyway think of hubby eating all of his Christmas puddings won’t you. He may well finally come to a conclusion of the perpetual debate on whether it should be brandy butter, cream or ice cream or even custard!