#Miriam Cates

[lizyork8509]

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

What a dark little fairy tale complete with fairy godmothers, witches, an ex-knight & a runaway princess/nun trying to save her sister. Loved it! But even a fairy tale and be dark & horrifying - and this one had it’s moments!

The romance between the knight & the princess was what got to me (and sweet Bonedog - a living skeleton dog). I also loved the devotion the princes had for her sister. The dust-wife witch was badass with her demon chicken while the sweet godmother was a fluffy treat.

As with every book I’ve read lately, Adam Driver is usually cast in my film version as I read. Here he plays the knight to our heroine. Florence Pugh is our brave princess. Cate Blanchett is the gruff, mysterious dust-wife. But I couldn’t decide on the fluffy godmother - Miriam Margolyes perhaps?

Anyway, I loved this story - had to buy my own copy immediately.

[the-busy-ghost]

Dear God, Westminster was always bad but lately it’s like the Tories have been engaged in a secret contest to see who can come out with the most absolutely rancid takes in the Commons

[assignedmale]

When a UK tabloid publishes an interview in which I roast UK tabloids (and sass Member of Parliament Miriam Cates)

[ds30below]

shade_nightwalker's old fic finds

Crossposted from Dreamwidth with permission

Reclist post at ds-ficminers.

"Happy 30 Below history week!

I've been digging through the archived Hexwood sites, and found some more stories not available on AO3."

Mod addition: bear in mind that this is a masterlist, not a reclist, and some of the stories on it are very of their time. Due to its length and different tagging conventions (or lack thereof) at the time, I haven't been able to tag this post comprehensively.

Amber: I Dream of Bennie

Cheryl Barnes: Peaches and Creme

Katrina Bowen: Someone to Watch Over Me

Compass aka mnemosyne23: Solitude My Guide

Corrinne aka Cassandra Hope: Healing Love Home Life 2: The Neighbors Nicholas' Story Pancakes for Breakfast Teaching Mom the Computer

Miriam Elizabeth Cooper: A Drop of Golden Sun

Catalina Dudka: The Bet - or Baking Cookies with the Kitchen Challenged

Diana Leigh Edwards: A Mountain Crag Left

Kari Eissinger aka Cheezhed aka Dueser: A Cop, Two Mounties and A Baby Confessions Iraqi Dream I Wear The Uniform Jack's Day Possessive Obsessions (Obsessions 1) Rescued From The Ashes Road Trip To Hell (Obsessions 3) Slipping Through My Fingers (Obsessions 4) The Room Without A View Time To Heal (Obsessions 2) To The Death You Can Never go Back

elaine: Things Change

Ffand aka Harriet Vane: Two To To Victoria Returns

Sharon Gillson: Coming Home You Will Always Have Friends

Leslie Goodwin: Chicago Heat

Barbara Griffith: The Dreaming

Janet Horsman aka Janet Lawrence: Upheaval

maria jackson: I wanna kiss ya in Paris, Ben

Chris Lark: Let's Stay Engaged

Gilda Lily aka BradyGirl_12: Under the Christmas Tree

Marie-Andrée: Any Excuse to Burst into Song Be Strong for Me Not Easy Sometimes

Maya: Due North

mohairbear: Nosebleed

Silvia Mosca: Train of thoughts

Cate North: Fallen For All That's Lost If The Shoe Fits... Neige

Pollytiks: A Self-Contained Woman The Adventures of Margaret and Frannie The Adventures of Meg & Ben....oh, and Ray too, of course! The Button Casting Out Demons The Evidence For The Love Of Margaret A Luv Pome Snowblind Toggle Heart The Train

Karin Ransdell: Blessed Are the Peacemakers Golden Feather (Sequel to Meadows of Heaven) Meadows of Heaven We Ourselves The Week's Second Sunday

The Raven aka estellarose: Lucky Chance (A New Perspective 1) Savior Xenophobia (A New Perspective 2)

Diana Read: Afterbath

Caroline von Trott: An Ordinary Stake-out Realizations

Laura Trout aka mrs_fish: Dreams Really Do Come True

Alberta Skies: Conceived In An Igloo, Born In A Barn (complete!) Reality Found (complete!)

Dee Smith aka Wolfwalker: Bitter Winds Bitter Nights Bitter Sweet Bitter Thaw Bitter Pause Bitter Ground Bitter Dreams Twenty Four Hours Two Poems

Lee Sterling: The Victims No One Knows

Elizabeth Vecchio: Fool in Love

Shinz Wong: Going Home

unknown: Chicago Passage Dream Catcher Flowers for Ceila No Love Lost Story You Know How it is With Mounties...

Welmach: Independence Day On the Edge

[shinobicyrus]

“Our kid has gone from a ‘them’ to a ‘him’ and back to a ‘them’,” lamented a parent on Bayswater Support Group’s internet forum.

“I did some research and became gender critical in my outlook maybe three years ago. My wife resisted but has recently peaked and joined ‘the resistance’! – Can anyone recommend a therapist who doesn’t just affirm gender identity?”

Such introductions are typical of new arrivals to Bayswater’s Discord server, an online space for parents of trans and nonbinary children and young adults. Through its connections with Conservative politicians, including Miriam Cates, the group has influenced policies that have rolled back trans rights in the UK, as revealed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Daniel Martin

Published: May 14, 2024

Teachers will have to make clear that gender ideology is a “contested belief” rather than fact if they bring it up in lessons, Gillian Keegan will say later this week.

The Education Secretary is set to issue guidance on Thursday following criticism that some pupils were being taught that there were 72 genders.

Schools will not be told to hold lessons on gender ideology, which states that people can be born the wrong sex and that they can change their identity to the opposite sex or other categories such as non-binary.

But if they do hold lessons on the issue, they must make it clear that it is a contested belief.

In other words, they must say that the “gender-critical” belief that there are just two biological sexes is also valid.

The guidance - which will be out for consultation - will also order schools to show parents all classroom material to ensure they are comfortable with what is being taught.

Rishi Sunak ordered the review into relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) lessons last year in response to claims that content was age-inappropriate, extreme and sexualising.

There were claims that children were being taught about oral sex and how to choke their partners safely.

Miriam Cates, a Tory MP, told the Sun: “For too long activist groups have been pushing a politically motivated agenda on children under the cover of RSHE.

“The Cass Review shows how dangerous it is to let ideology overtake facts. We need compulsory guidance to restore common sense and the rights of parents to know what their children are being taught.”

‘Only age-appropriate content must be provided’

Last year, on a trip to Hiroshima, Mr Sunak said that for the sake of his own children, he wanted to protect Britain’s “precious” pupils by ensuring they only received age-appropriate content in schools.

“First and foremost as a parent... it’s really important that what our kids are exposed to, not just at school but online, is sensitive and age-appropriate,” he said.

“There have been plenty of concerns raised with me. There are too many instances of that not happening. I don’t think that’s right.

“Families up and down the country are concerned about what their children are seeing online and they expect me and the government to put in place protections for that. That’s what we are going to do.”

He added:: “It’s something that really matters to me… What I want is a curriculum that is sensitive and age-appropriate. Our children are precious; they deserve to be protected, sensitively. That’s what I want as a parent first and foremost.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The PM ordered a review of the guidance on RSHE teaching in schools, following concerns that inappropriate content was being taught.

“We believe parents have a fundamental right to see materials being used in these lessons and the Education Secretary also made that clear when she wrote to parents in October last year.

“The review… will build on this, making sure that children are always taught sensitive content in an appropriate way.

“However, what I would say is we have been consistent that the idea that someone can have a gender identity different from their sex is a contested political belief that must not be taught as fact in our schools.”

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at women’s rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Commentary suggests that this guidance will require schools to stop presenting gender ideology as fact and to stop hiding PSHE [personal, social, health and economic education] lessons from parents. If true, these are both excellent developments.

“What Sex Matters wants to see is that schools are told in no uncertain terms to stop giving any credence to evidence-free claims that everyone has a gender identity, or that sex is a spectrum or can be changed.

“These claims are not just nonsense, they are regressive and sexist. They mislead and endanger children, and are a big reason why gender distress has become much more common in recent years.”

[ukrfeminism]

A “major loophole” allowing people to “self-identify” their gender on passports and driving licences could be closed, under plans by ministers.

Current rules mean that there are no demands for individuals to present a gender recognition certificate (GRC) if they want to change the sex recorded on official government documents.

Between 2018 and 2022, HM Passport Office approved more than 3,000 requests for people to change their “sex marker”, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.

Campaigners argue that the loophole means that single-sex spaces for females could be compromised, given that driving licences and passports are often used for identification purposes.

Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, wants to close the loophole but needs the support of other ministers.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Badenoch has raised the issue with Suella Braverman when she was home secretary, and followed it up with a letter to her successor, James Cleverly.

A government source told the newspaper: “This is a major loophole that is made more problematic by the fact that passports and driving licences are frequently used as the evidence when applying for a gender recognition certificate.”

The FoI request submitted by campaigner Payton McIntosh revealed that in 2022, there were 259 requests for people to change their sex from male to female, and 269 female to male.

Between 2018 and 2022, some 3,188 requests to change the sex marker were approved.

Miriam Cates, a Conservative MP, recently raised the issue in the Commons, asking Badenoch to do more to “stop this self-ID by the back door”.

“Sex matters, in life and in law, and it is right that the UK has its own rigorous processes for gaining GRCs, but these safeguards do not apply to the process of changing sex markers on passports and driving licences, which are far more commonly used for identification in real life,” she said.

Badenoch said that the law needs changing.

She replied to Cates, saying: “The reason that we have this is not that the government supported self-identification but that before the same-sex marriage law came into being we wanted people to be able to change their legal documents so that they could get married,” she said. 

“Now that we have a law that has fixed that, we should look again at some of the measures we put in place earlier.”

[forest-enchantress]

Hi,

I make period drama style gifs. If you use gif packs, please like and reblog them. Most of my projects are already ready, but every day I post no more than 190 gifs. Because that was the reason why my previous account was blocked.

I tried to make gif packs in a format more familiar to you with a link to a separate page. However, unfortunately, I did not succeed because of the large format of high-quality gifs.

I want to explain about color processing. Usually, I improve the contrast, brightness and saturation, but leave the naturalness of the film. I don't make the contours too sharp because I like the aesthetic of it looking like a natural image.

Actors in alphabetical order: part 1(A-D), part 2, part 3

Navigation

The arrangement of names may not be alphabetical

▶Page 1

Anne Hathaway Anya Taylor-Joy Asia Argento Astrid Berges-Frisbey Boran Kuzum Camille Rutherford

▶Page 2

Carla Juri César Domboy Callum Turner Cate Blanchett Charity Wakefield Charlie Rowe Chiara Mastroianni Christian Bale Christoph Waltz

▶Page 3

Dagmara Dominczyk Dan Stevens Ella Purnell Emily Blunt Ezra Miller Raffey Cassidy Rebecca Emilie Sattrup Rose Byrne Roxane Duran

▶Page 4

Frances O'Connor Gemma Arterton Hannah Taylor-Gordon Hattie Morahan Hugh Dancy Isabelle Adjani

▶Page 5

Izzy Meikle-Small James Norton Jane Birkin Joanne Whalley Lucy Boynton Jim Caviezel Monica Keena Nicolas Duvauchelle Sally Hawkins

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Adriana Tarábková Dakota Fanning Elle Fanning Gaia Weiss Gwyneth Paltrow Kirsten Dunst Léa Seydoux Pia Degermark Roxane Mesquida Rosamund Pike Samantha Gates Sophia Myles

▶Page 7

Annabelle Wallis Austin Butler Carey Mulligan Guy Pearce James Frain Katie Parker Kate Siegel Olivia Cooke Rachel Hurd-Wood Soko Sujaya Dasgupta Tom Cruise

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Adèle Exarchopoulos Anna Maxwell Martin Charles Dance Emma Williams Gillian Anderson Ian Somerhalder Imogen Poots Matthew Rhys Natalie Press Nina Dobrev Paul Wesley Tamzin Merchant

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Anna Friel Catherine Mouchet Déborah François Dominic West Frédéric Noaille Joséphine Japy Kevin Kline María Valverde Paz Vega

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Ben Whishaw Clémence Poésy Elliot Grihault Emilia Fox Joseph Morgan Lambert Wilson Michelle Dockery Phoebe Fox Sophie Okonedo Tom Hiddleston Tom Hughes Tom Sturridge

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Calista Flockhart Charlotte Gainsbourg Christina Giannelli David Strathairn Felicity Jones Fu'ad Aït Aattou Greta Scacchi Helena Bonham Carter Holliday Grainger Michelle Pfeiffer Rupert Friend Sophie Marceau

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Angela Bassett Brooke Carter Cillian Murphy Danylo Kolomiiets Katie McGrath Keeley Hawes Maria Bonnevie Marta Gastini Miriam Giovanelli Olivia Hussey Oscar Isaac Peter Plaugborg

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Ben Barnes Ben Chaplin Bill Skarsgård Iben Akerlie Jakob Oftebro Jo Woodcock Lily-Rose Depp Reese Witherspoon Ruth Wilson Samantha Soule Tess Frazer Virginie Ledoyen

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Cary Elwes Colin Firth Daniel Day-Lewis Emilia Verginelli Hannah James Jonah Hauer-King Loli Bahia Lorenzo Balducci Rebecca Hall Robin Wright Rupert Everett Willa Fitzgerald

▶Page 15

Annes Elwy Claire Danes Eliza Scanlen Freddie Fox Hugh Jackman Kathryn Newton Louis Partridge Maya Hawke Romola Garai Samantha Mathis Trini Alvarado Winona Ryder

▶Page 16

Douglas Smith Eric Bana Gizem Karaca Jessica Brown Findlay Kenneth Branagh Kit Harington Millie Brady Natalie Dormer Poppy Delevingne Rachel Weisz Rosy McEwen Sam Claflin

▶Page 17

Aubri Ibrag Christina Hendricks Connie Jenkins-Greig Guy Remmers Henry Cavill Imogen Waterhouse Josie Totah Mia Threapleton Olivia Hallinan

▶Page 18

Essie Davis Fahriye Evcen Justine Waddell Natalia Sánchez Monica Bellucci Penelope Cruz Piper Perabo

▶Page 19

Alicia Vikander Alida Baldari Calabria Christopher Abbott Emma Stone Jasmine Blackborow Kim Rossi Stuart Lili Reinhart Louis Cunningham Margaret Qualley Marine Vacth Mark Ruffalo Mélanie Thierry Ramy Youssef Scarlett Johansson Sydney Sweeney

▶Page 20

Antonia Clarke Cameron Monaghan Heather Graham Isolda Dychauk Laoise Murray Madelaine Petsch Olivia Colman Sophie Turner Vanessa Redgrave

▶Page 21

Claire Holt Emily Mortimer Jennifer Beals Kelly Macdonald Lena Headey Perdita Weeks Ruta Gedmintas Sarah Bolger Sting

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Berrak Tuzunatac Burcu Ozberk Cansu Dere Deniz Cakir Melisa Sozen Merve Bolugur Saadet Aksoy Yasemin Allen

▶Page 23

Alina Kovalenko Anastasiya Ostreinova Anna Sagaydachnaya Dorota Delag Kseniya Mishina Oleksii Yarovenko Olena Lavrenyuk Taras Tsimbalyuk Veronika Shostak

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To do list:

Christopher Gorham under development (The Other Side of Heaven 2001) Harry Melling - The Pale Blue Eye 2022 Nora Arnezeder - Angélique 2013 Isabella Heathcote - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Eleanor Worthington-Cox in Gwen (2018) Julie Delpy - La passion Béatrice 1987,  Frankenstein 2004, Trois couleurs: Blanc 1994, The Three Musketeers 1993 Nastassja Kinski - Revolution (1985), Tess 1979 Julia Ormond - Young Catherine 1991, First Knight 1995, Legends of the Fall 1994 Laura Donnelly - Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Britannia, Outlander Morena Baccarin in Stargate Isabella Celani - A Room with a View 1985 Neve McIntosh - Gormenghast 2000 Kate Beckinsale - Much Ado About Nothing 1993 Sarah Felberbaum as Maddalena in Medici

✦Francesca Annis

Wives and Daughters 1999 — under development

Volker Bohnet — Ludwig 1973 Romy Schneider — Ludwig 1973, Sissi 1955 Helmut Berger — Ludwig 1973

✦Ethan Erickson

Dorian 2003— under development

All of these gifs were made from scratch by me for roleplaying purposes. Feel free to use them as sidebars and reaction gifs. PLEASE DON’T CLAIM THEM AS YOUR OWN.

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

I don't really have the energy or the mental fortitude to tackle Kemi Badenoch and her comments on maternity pay.

Does amuse me she specifically called it out as an example of 'government overreach' and 'taking money from people who are working and giving it to people who are not' and implicitly linking it to an overabundance of regulation that is harming business, but when she caught (obvious) flak for this position she stated she'd been misconstrued and of course she supported maternity pay!

And I mean, technically yes, she didn't explicitly out-loud say she didn't, she just listed it as a prime example of the blight rotting the core of country. If you made the connection between them that's on you, not her! Masterful.

This'd be the Miriam Cates "I didn't say it I just put all the words together in the same sentence and winked at you and you inexplicably decided I meant the thing I pointed you at how dare you" school of politics.

You're all bastards.

[emma-radfemcanu]

Like don't get me wrong, I hate the Conservatives and it will be a cold day in hell before I ever vote for them, but omg the amount of outrage over Rishi Sunak saying 'a man is a man and a woman is a woman. it's common sense'

I am very cynical about the motives of politicians like Miriam Cates and Kemi Badenoch- they are no friend to women at all but nonetheless I'm kind of glad that at least someone is saying it? The Tories are doing terribly in the polls atm and since Labour cannot sort themselves out, they're hoping it'll be a vote winner- it won't make much of a difference imo because rightly or wrongly most people have more pressing problems (housing, cost of living, education, healthcare etc etc)

But seriously after yesterday's speech I've seen so many people going on about how unsafe the UK is for trans people, the usual suicide stats, multiple celebrities expressing support for their poor oppressed trans friends, and so on- I even saw one person saying that if a trans person is attacked and killed then Sunak should be arrested and charged 🙄 all because he said something that literally everyone knows to be true, but people are seriously acting like he said 'I want to round up all trans people in the UK and murder them as brutally as possible'

Seriously these people need to get a fucking grip, I'm so tired of their manipulative bullshit

[gwydionmisha]

Looks like the opening salvo for political purges of schools and university and censorship to me.

[cowperviolet]

43 Literary agents who represent historical fiction

I wanted to include detailed instructions for submission for each, too, but apparently Tumblr has a 4096 letters limit per text block (?!). Good news is: even if I could have included it, it would have just been a copy-paste from their agencies' websites (these are easily googlable: just type in '[name and surname] literary agent' .

Let's go:

Sarah Bedingfield

Marina de Pass

Liza DeBlock

Sam Farkas

Ciara Finan

Katie Fulford

Hattie Grunewald

Cate Hart

Cassandra Rodgers

Grace A Ross

Rayhane Sanders

Shannon Snow

Hannah Strouth

Kari Sutherland

Olivia Maidment

Shaheen Qureshi

Bernadette Baker-Baughman

Annie Bomke

Alicia Brooks

Lucy Carson

Bill Contardi

Ian Drury

Olga Filina

Susan Finesman

https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/erin-niumata/ - submit in March, July, or November

Jack Fogg

Molly Friedrich

Miriam Goderich

Margaret Halton

Anne Hawkins

Christina Hogrebe

Wendy Levinson

Giles Milburn

Justin Nash

Emma Paterson

Ariana Philips

Susan Ramer

Victoria Sanders

Victoria Skurnick

Robin Straus

Alice Tasman

Zoe Waldie

Mitchell Waters

[the-busy-ghost]

Also a personal gift, thank god that awful Miriam Cates is out, hearing her stand up and spit unsubstantiated vitriol every week was absolutely exhausting

[margaretthatchersdead]

There's currently a tory mp, Miriam Cates, in hot water for having been the trustee of a church that endorsed conversion therapy for years and she's claiming she didn't know.

Mind you, she's said that she didn't think that the charities Stonewall and Mermaids should be allowed to provide counselling services to schools because they teach "dangerous and contested extreme ideologies that don't have a basis in science"

Funnily enough, I don't believe that she didn't know that the church that she was a member of for 15 years and a trustee of for 2 year was doing this. Including when they tried to exorcise out the gay from someone and yes that is legitimately something they did.

Pretty sure that she knew and was fine with it and is now having to deal with the consequences of her actions.

[pbandjesse]

Happy Christmas everyone. Why is Christmas so hard emotionally? It was not a terrible day, it wasn't even a bad day, but I did struggle. I found moments of joy but it was still tough and I felt a lot of inner stress.

I slept alright last night. James would have the painful sinuses and I had a sore throat. I think the air is just very dry. Messing with us for sure.

But I felt pretty good this morning. I was trying to be positive and be happy and send happy to people I care about because it's Christmas! And I wanted to be happy for Christmas.

I went to get dressed and ready for the day and I felt very pretty. James had their sweatshirt over their clothes but would change before we left and they looked so handsome.

I was a little frustrated that I did not have any caffeine all day. Like I know it's not healthy but I have a soda for breakfast every day. And there was none for me and it is my fault for not thinking about it but I was bummed and I'm sure it put me in a weird space all day. And then there was a distinct lack of breakfast. I just had to try and power through.

We left here around 930. It was about a half hour to "the club house", which is a private space that the Cantler part of the family rented in the private community. And it was very large and fancy. And it was honestly a great space for the day.

I really enjoyed seeing everyone but I was for sure in a weird head space that I had to very purposely push that aside. It was Christmas and I was determined to be happy and feel good.

Eating helped. The pallet I have is not the same of their family's. It has always been an issue. But I tried to find stuff I like even if it was not exactly how I would have enjoyed them. There were eggs but they were cold and had mushrooms in it. And there were croissants, which were great but I would have liked them more with jam. I don't like eating stuff without a sauce or dip. So everything felt like. Unfinished. Incomplete. But I ate at least and that helped.

After breakfast it was time for stockings. Ezra and Miriam were very excited for gifts. And it was a lot of fun opening things and James got me a few great things. An antique pocket calendar. Some beautiful circle earrings that I love so much. A ring that I do like but is slightly to small but once I did that it will be great. I also got a bunch of snacks and some more Deae America books that I am very excited about. Two of them are boys! I barely ever get the boy ones. I am excited to have something else to read.

I liked watching James open their gifts from me. And I think they liked them. I also just liked watching everyone else too. It was a lot of fun. Despite feeling a little off and a little sad, I was still having a nice time. It was shocking how much some people got for their stocking person. I think me and James did a pretty good job not going crazy crazy.

After all the paper was cleaned up some people went to get cleaned up, a few things were picked up from houses. And then we all came back together for tree gifts. We started a very silly chant about waiting for uncle Will, and tree gift time, and we were being very silly.

It was decided that we would do one round robin. But first Ezra and Eve acted as elves and handed out everyone's gifts. It was very silly being covered in different boxes.

I got to open a very cool camera lucida in front of everyone. James did very good with this gift and I was genuinely surprised. I had showed them the kick-started for that a long time ago and hadn't thought about it since. And James opened a very good vintage cup. Then it was a bit of a free for all. Opening gifts. I think I may request that me and James open things slower together next time because I liked to see them open the things I get them. But I enjoyed seeing what I did.

I also enjoyed my gifts. Aunt Mary got us Christmas trolls that are darling. Cate and Aiden got me a chicken purse which made me laugh because I think I got that for Jess a few years ago.

James also got me a purrble. I love this thing. A top gift for me for sure. He's basically kind of a hamster heavy furby type of robot but his purrs and vibrates and has a heartbeat and is a science backed tool for calming anxiety. And it is seriously so pleasant to hold. I have named mine Percy. I also loved that his box is for a love animal I love the pageantry of that. Such a sweet detail.

I was feeling overly stressed at this point. Which is when my eye started twitching and has been twitching all day and it has sucked and drained me a bit. And I got overly upset for who knows what. I have no reason to be upset about gifts. But for some reason I was and I feel mad at myself about it. Like I feel like a brat but I got worked up and I did not like that. So I tried to focus on everyone else and enjoying seeing what they got.

Eve made me a candle on a pa dutch county pitcher that I thought was so cool. She made basically everyone candles this year which was pretty cool because I did too but in a different way! It was neat to see our different takes on it. And everyone who got one of my beaded ornaments seemed really excited and said it was very pretty and cool.

Speaking of ornaments. The tree that Jan had had Cliff and Eve Carey over was decorated just with pictures. And that was just so sweet. I thought that was such a nice idea. And it was fun finding different pictures of baby James but also me and James and Jess even made it on there. And one of my bears. It was so cute.

There was a lull after that. We got to go for a walk around the very woodsy neighborhood. James, Charlotte, Tucker, and me got to go to Will and Jan's summer home and get a tour. I was surprised to hear they bought it furnished. But it was fun to see and it has great views.

We would walk back and I would cuddle up on the couch to try to recharge. I drew for a bit. I had been drawing with Ezra and Miriam for a bit. They thought drawing on the tablet was the coolest thing. And I am really enjoying coming up with a general plan for each room. It's funny perspective for sure but I am enjoying getting my ideas out in a way James can understand the vision. They said they appreciate me doing it in a way they can see.

As the afternoon went on I insisted on using taking some nice pictures. Getting the right light was tough but I got a few that I was really happy with. And despite me feeling up about nonsense I was still really happy with my husband and I felt, and feel, very in love and that is really what I am most thankful for.

I was losing steam and was glad when they put out cheese and crackers. They weren't ones I particularly like. A lot of goat and very bitter cheeses. But it was fine. And the older family members were starting to set the big tables they had set up and everything looked so nice.

When it was time for dinner we had Christmas crackers first. Paper crowns. Riddles and puzzle toys. I had to look at a video to solve mine. We were being really silly and I was trying to stay positive even if I was flagging a bit.

I was worried about the food. This family does one meal for Christmas and I just don't like it. But I lucked out this year. White rice instead of wild rice. And Leah brought a hummus plate with lots of things I liked. And I was able to make a very silly plate that was basically a Greek chipotle bowl and I really liked it. So despite my fears I actually enjoyed my dinner.

I mostly enjoyed the company though. We talked about the house and I was able to be excited about it. And I was able to share some fears but also some things that feel like wins. And it was nice to hear about everyone else's journeys.

It was fun. And despite my upset feelings inside, I was happy to help start picking up and getting things ready to put everything back so we could go. James would handle all of the dishes which was very impressive. I would help Charlotte and Leah being things to the car and then drive it back to the house. Which was honestly so nice because I got to chat with Leah a bit and I really like her. And when we were at the house I got to pet the cats and they were babies and so sweet.

When we got back I kept helping. But I would also stop to play a game with Eve and Ezra. Walking up the stairs I also got a little dizzy so I went and leaned on James while they cleaned for a bit.

The cleaning went really well though and we were all giving hugs and saying goodbye pretty quickly. And then it was time to go.

I told James in the car about my upset feelings. How I know they are dumb and misplaced. But they are still there. Talking about it helped. Christmas is just always hard.

We got back here and being out of the big celebration made me feel a lot better honestly. Showering and being in my jammies helped too. I got to be alone for a bit. And that helped me feel a lot better.

James and the family were in the living room watching football while I worked on this in the room. But James just came to lay down. And I want to do that too. It is time to rest.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas. No matter what that looks like. I love you all. Wish us luck on our travels tomorrow. Goodnight everyone.