Santa's Week......

 
It will probably be the spring before we catch up on all the recorded Christmas TV specials hahaha. We did enjoy the Strictly final, mainly because they were all so good and we didn't mind who won. Much the same for the Celebrity Masterchef winner too. I'll not name names in case you haven't caught up yet and want to.

Son and fiancé recovered enough to make their rescheduled flight on Monday. So relieved for them but still worried, well that's a mum's job to worry isn't it. 

Daughter drove them to Heathrow, after she had taken me and O to our dental appointment, just a checkup for all three of us. O got a clear result, Daughter has another appointment for a filling and a hospital referral for a root removal this dentist can't do and I survived the trauma of someone poking in my mouth and pleased she found nothing that needed treatment. She could tell it was a trauma and became extra gentle. 

Tuesday morning was another blood test, yes life gets that exciting! 

By Tuesday evening our travelers had arrived in Brisbane, which was Wednesday morning for them. Hubby of course had tracked their flights including the nearly three hour stop in Singapore. That leg stretch is so appreciated after such a long first flight and I've been told Changi Airport is amazing in places and worth seeing. Sadly I never saw it like that when we were there in 2006 as it hadn't progressed beyond a large and very efficient airport then. 

Christmas Eve Daughter and O came over and helped with the veg prep, so helpful. At 2pm our time we wished Son and fiancé a very merry Christmas as they are 10 hours ahead and got some lovely photos back on the group chat. 

We set the table just before we went to bed. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY EVERYONE! 

Daughter brought the rest of the food here and along with the eating crackers were the pulling crackers for the table. No tacky useless plastic toy, these ones had a pair of Christmas socks inside each one. Brilliant aren't they! 

We have never had as few as six round this very large table for Christmas Dinner before, so pulling the crackers was a fun arm stretch (especially for me) but it did mean there was room to put all the food on the table rather than me dishing up and everyone who wanted seconds (or thirds) having to go to the kitchen worktop and get it.  

I enjoyed all three courses (a little of each) and everyone else tucked into a lot of each and as always so much left over. It would have been mean not to share. 

It was definitely time to do nothing in the lounge for a while and let it all digest. 

No board games this year as that's E's thing and she wasn't here, so tea, chocolates and chat then when it was time we watched the Gladiators Celebrity Christmas Special. After that O and M were ready to go home. Not much later there was the Strictly Come Dancing Celebrity Christmas Special that Daughter and R wanted to stay and watch with us. That seemed a really good time for Daughter to bring out her cheese and crackers buffet. None of us needed much but it's amazing how extra room is found for tasty nibbling hahaha. 

When we waved our last guests off home Hubby and I dealt with all the leftover food, he carved all the turkey while I was boxing and wrapping then trying to decide what's best used very soon so fridge and what's good for freezing. After that it was a cuppa and more tele and the rest could wait. A lovely day all round. 

Friday morning Hubby ran the dishwasher again and tackled all the roasting tins by hand (quicker when there's lots). Cutlery was put back into canteens, posh crockery back into it's dining room cupboard, extra chairs back round the table, table mats back in the drawer and the hot dish trivets too, then the  table cloth went back on and our lovely table can go into hiding for another year. 

We did smile when congratulating ourselves that we don't have to do it all again on Saturday on the grand scale as this year my nephew E and his wife N are hosting family day that we have held here for many many years and definitely all of the last 14 apart from when we were covid restricted. All family of varying ages and has been as many as 34 people some years.  This year Hubby and I are taking Daughter and O as the rest of our immediate family can't make it which is a shame. 

For the rest of Friday Hubby had a couple of jobs to do.  One of the garden wall lights wasn't working but he couldn't get the cover off to see what size bulb, hopefully just too cold so he'll try again another time. There was also a big problem with a fuse and routers and hubs up in the loft and buying a new 18 port something to replace the 24 port something......... and that's about all the explanation you'll get from me as I didn't understand the rest. 

Saturday and the 27th which had been my dad's birthday, which is why our family day was usually held on the 27th when Christmas Bank holiday and work structure allowed. So the four of us are driving off soon to Canvey Island which should be about 1hr10 ish from here. You'll hear about that next time. So have a good weekend and keep celebrating through to the new year. 

Tinsel Time......

 
Another festive dinner, this time with my Wednesday gang although we had to do it on Tuesday. We were at The Orwell Hotel in Felixstowe on friendM's highest recommendation but I thought both the service and the food were not as good as we'd had elsewhere. 

The hotel has recently been taken over by a new company and the renovations inside look lovely. They are a Dubai based investment company and for some reason they have installed a mechanical elephant in front of the building. 

Apparently rubbing his trunk brings good luck, so friendM did, it also made him pee hahaha. 

On a not good subject Son didn't pop over to see us last weekend as he is full of head cold, this got worse and turned into a chest infected and he is now on antibiotics and steroids. Fiancé is unfortunately suffering the same developing a few days behind. The most disappointing thing is for a whole year they have planned and booked a four week tour of Australia and New Zealand and they should have flown out yesterday, Friday 19th! Disappointments, logistics and huge costs involved and their travel agent has moved their first flight to Monday 22nd missing out Sydney and flying direct to Brisbane. Daughter has managed to rearrange Monday so she can still take them to Heathrow. Now I'm keeping everything crossed they are both well enough for Monday and survive long haul which is exhausting anyway. 

Then, as Daughter wasn't driving to Heathrow on Friday Hubby offered to wash her car so she came over with R and it gave us our only opportunity to discuss our Christmas day menu. Daughter has a Tesco delivery slot booked for Monday so we added stuff to that after what we already had between us. 

So this time next week I can tell you all about our Christmas day and boxing day and all that's left for me to say is

Quite Calm.....

 
Two festive lunches this week, Monday was with the coffee morning neighbours

And Tuesday was with my xBT work team. 

I actually enjoyed them both, managing to eat a small turkey meal each time. I'm being a rebel and not taking the evil pills at the moment, sometimes I need a break. 

E is spending a few days at her mums so Hubby and I popped over for tea and chat Wednesday afternoon. 

I've got the gifts wrapped and under the tree, I've also done all the money gift transfers scheduled to move on the 24th so I'm feeling a lot more organised. Need to think about food next. 

Hubby got totally engrossed in the latest jigsaw a neighbour brought up. This one has very irregular shaped pieces so more of a challenge and it helped that snooker was on the TV at the same time. 

Friday morning we had a meeting with the agent from the will shop to finalise the paperwork for the updated legal stuff which of course includes handing over lots of money. Shouldn't have to give that a thought again. 

And today is a full day Doggy Day Care day so the best reason to relax. 

Enjoy your weekend.

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Going Nowhere.......

 
We all expect subscriptions to cost more each renewal and around inflation level is acceptable, however Flickr Pro has definitely out-priced itself this year. Daughter mentioned it a couple of weeks ago and when my email hit the inbox I totally agreed.  

Hubby has done a great job of transferring the hundreds of folders containing the thousands of photos collected over so many years and downloading them onto the home computer. Not as convenient, not auto saved, but so much cheaper! 

And now it's December! 

Cards all done and a pack ready for the scouts to deliver locally for us, which is a great fund raiser for them. One air mail stamp for the US. Second class stamps for the largest heap, two of which are birthday cards and a few left for hand delivery.

R and O were here Sunday and this

became this

although Hubby and I had to finish it as a lot of the time they were like this

A lot of the time before that had been a busy full house. Son arrived first, later Daughter messaged us she was arriving a bit later than planned as R had a hangover. O arrived straight to ours with his girlfriend and her parent who had driven from Norwich to save him getting the train, they all stayed for tea (by which time Son was on his third). Daughter and M arrived bringing R and the dog, Daughter and M stayed long enough to make polite conversation with everyone. O's girlfriend and parent went home then Daughter and M left as they had planned a trip into Woodbridge. Son and Hubby had to take the dog out for a walk to calm her down a bit, then Son went home. Eventually just the four of us here for lunch followed by quite a lethargic pace for the remainder of the day. Daughter came back later, had tea and took them home eventually. 

Friends LA and SG finally managed to meet up for tea and cake, however friendLA works at The Academy and said because there was a lot of covid and flu viruses there she suggested we meet up here at my house and they brought the cakes. A lovely long chatty afternoon. 

Everything else has been delayed as I've had a migraine which is hopefully going away now. 

See you next week.

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