This first full week of December was a relatively mundane one, so not much to update you all on.

The health situation remained unchanged / no main highlights this past week. I did manage 2 walks, with times of 13:09 and 13:15, but the third planned walk had to be put off due to heavy rain on the day I planned to do it. Whilst I do not like missing any of them, practicalities have to kick in from time to time.

The main focus for week was creating the maps from the recent sketches, with 12 of those to do. I completed 5 and most of a 6th one during the past week, which is great progress and the plan is to have them wrapped up in the coming week, or soon after. I also received some more photos needed, from one of my US fellow historians, which reduces my missing photos list even further. In between the book activity, I also extracted a large batch of signed Knight’s Cross holder photos and am prepping them for upload to the website; the focus will be on Oakleaves and also Swords and Oakleaves holders.

Alongside that main ‘history’ focus, there was some car related activities. The car I picked up the week before, was taken away for 24-hours for some niggles to be eradicated. Once sorted, the car was returned and since then, I have been using it and adding personal touches to bed it in for my use. Nice to have the flexibility of my own transport again and so far, happy with the choice. My son Karl is also searching for a car, as he is using his small van at the moment, which is not family practical. We took a couple of trips at different points in the week to view a some potentials, but unfortunately, both had issues that he was not willing to handle; his search continues.

Sandra and I finished the week off with sorted our Christmas cards and also wrapping all of the pressies for the family. A nice festive end to the week and part of us trying to reclaim the Christmas spirit, following a couple of years of a lack of desire, impacted directly by the health situation.  Like many people at this time of year, we reflect on what the closing year brought and for us 2025 has not been an overly pleasant one, for various reasons. The first 2 years of dealing with this disease brought many challenges, so for the first 2 Christmases in the AD world, we lacked the overall seasonal spirit; we have well and truly reclaimed that this year!

I hope you are all working your way through the December mayhem (including the unnecessarily packed shops!), are feeling the seasonal spirit and looking forward to spending time with those that matter the most to you.

Thanks for the continued interest in these updates.