New Year's Eve

Here we are, another quiet New Year's Eve. The time seems to have slipped by and we got nothing organised for tonight, a repeat of last year. The year before that, I was ill with an ear infection, and although we kept our date with our friends in Leeds, and ate out at a posh Chinese restaurant, I must have been very poor company!
So it was three years ago we last celebrated properly!

We had our DD's three children to stay again last night, to facilitate her getting to work easily this morning. So I felt it only the proper thing to do to invite our DS and his two girls over to join in! They stayed over lunchtime, but had to leave shortly afterwards to prepare for a visit to Rotherham again, to see in the New Year Yorkshire style!!

I have enjoyed watching Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest - and now my DH has put on an old Doris Day film, in preference to Graham Norton ! lol!

Is it Tuesday already??

The overnighters were very good last night, staying up until 8.10 to watch their favourite video, 'Spot's Magical Christmas', then going to bed without a murmur. That was just the 4 year olds of course!! The 14 year old stayed up to be frightened to death watching 'The Day of the Triffids' with Grandad! I took myself upstairs and indulged in a lounge on the bed with my current book, 'Star of Kazan' by Eva Ibbotson, which I am re-reading for the umpteenth time.

The babes didn't wake us until 7.10, which is good. We were all finished with breakfast by 9.30, and then they occupied themselves, getting dressed up etc, and making a 'home' in the small bedroom, for a good while,coming down periodically to tell us something or to have a 'snack'. Of course, I should have known better than to leave two 4 year olds to their own devices for too long - when I went to tidy up after they had been collected by their mum, I discovered in the bedroom that they had emptied several jigsaws out of their boxes, as well as the letters of the alphabet!!!

I shall endeavour to do better when they do a re-run of the overnight stay tomorrow night!!

Almost at the end of 2009. Even young people are saying, 'Where has the time gone?'. The good thing is that we always start thinking about holidays as soon as the new year arrives!!!

The aftermath

Well, here we are, we've survived yet another Christmas cracker of a celebration! We had a busy Christmas Eve, having three grandchildren from lunchtime until after tea while their Mum reluctantly went to work. She was a very cross bunny, because her employer, Next, had signed her up for lots of extra hours, and rearranged her contracted hours, without consulting her.

Christmas Day went very well, all the little omissions I made went unnoticed by others, to my relief! The turkey was way too big for the number of people here, but that's what Christmas is all about isn't it? It's part of the 'after' ritual, sorting out the carcase and making soup, having lots of turkey sandwiches!!

Boxing Day saw the arrival, during the afternoon, of DB and his wife. It was a quiet visit for them, they are used to us having a houseful of children! They stayed long enough to see DS and his family when they popped in at 7.45p.m on their way back from their Christmas stay with the in-laws. The girls were very excited, and their great uncle took delight in winding them up!

The children were taken home at around 9pm, and DB took his wife and Granny back home, leaving us to get back to normal after a busy 6 days.

Next hurdle, Monday night/Tuesday morning, when we have three grandchildren while their mother goes to work another unasked for shift!!!

Nearly there!

Sunday was the big day that we had been looking forward to for two months! Dinner at the restaurant at Cawthorne! The weather conspired to make it difficult for us - snow and more snow as we neared our destination, and by the time we left my brother's house for the restaurant at 2pm, the roads were 4 inches deep with snow, and traffic was struggling on the untreated roads. Luckily my brother has a 4x4, which coped confidently with the conditions, and brought us home safely after a marvellous meal.

On Monday we brought Granny down from Barnsley ready to start the festive season,and yesterday, after nursery, we received a visit from the two sisters, who were really lively!

This morning felt very festive. After breakfast I used some Jus Rol puff pastry to make my own sausage rolls. Some of the sausagemeat I mixed with some Paxo sage and onion stuffing mix which I soaked yesterday. Then I made some courgette and boursin soup, using the recipe given to me after my husband's sister-in-law's 60th birthday, where we enjoyed the soup for the 1st time.

Tomorrow I must make some more mince pies - the first batch have lasted no time at all!

Here we are then, on the final furlong! We had our DD's three children last night while she and her partner went to a postponed evening with their friends. We had wondered whether to agree to this babysitting stint on account of the fact that it was our wedding anniversary, but in the end said 'yes'. We don't often get out to celebrate, as we were silly enough to get married the week before Christmas, and this year with the anniversary falling on a Friday, there seemed even less chance of getting out. Besides, we have a treat in store - we are dining out at a posh restaurant in Cawthorne, Barnsley, for Sunday lunch, tomorrow! This is of course, assuming that we are not totally snowed in! To be honest, if we had not been booked in at this restaurant for the last two months, I think we would be calling off our trip, at least until a little later in the week. What is even more concerning is that Granny is being taken to York for Caitlin's christening - and York is likely to be in the thick of the snow. I must remind DB to take a winter survival kit in the car...!

Today I have chilled. My house is tidy (by my standards at any rate!) and I have no more presents to buy or wrap. My DH has finally finished cleaning my oven, which he insists is his job (and who am I to argue) so maybe tomorrow I will do a little baking, and decorate the Christmas cake.

Family gatherings

On Tuesday, I picked up a leaflet advertising a 'Carol Singing' event in our local town. I thought this would be a good opportunity to get the family together and be Christmassy, so cajoled them into meeting my DH and myself there, with all the children. Maybe the littlies were a bit young to appreciate it all, but I'm sure they enjoyed listening to the local school choir. When the event was over, we all ended up coming back to our house and having lunch, I say 'all' but the partners of our offspring were both at work - they work in the retail sector. And it being Christmas, they were both at work today as well, so we invited our DS and DD +offspring to join us again today, so once more our home has resembled a playgroup!
The advantage of having a 14 year old grandson who is now taller than yourself is that decorating for Christmas is a doddle. He has always insisted on helping to decorate the tree (since he was able to talk and tell me that that is what he wanted to do!!!) and now I can safely leave it to him to do. And this morning I just left him to it, and it was like having a magic wand waved over my home - all the streamers and danglers appeared by magic! Thanks Big T!

Ok, a city centre on a Friday is not necessarily a sensible shopping solution, but sometimes it's unavoidable. So I ventured forth, bus pass at the ready (I love this free travel!) and joined the masses, standing room only by the time we got to Priory. Luckily, lots of passengers got off at the hospital and that made it more comfortable. Which is just as well seeing that the journey up Derby Road was a very slow one. Apparently someone has knocked down a traffic light in the busy city centre, and the repair means that the road has to be closed, thus causing major disruption and general chaos. So having left the house at 10.15, I had only got as far as a coffee shop by 11.30!
However, a wander around an art shop restored my equilibrium, and I felt refreshed enough to walk from one shopping centre to the other, calling at Waterstones on the way to investigate their 'language department' for my own present from my DH. I have asked for a 'nice' French/English dictionary for Christmas. WHSmiths, for whom I have a discount voucher, only had 'school' type dictionaries on their shelves, but I was looking for something a little more 'adult' and Waterstones had a nice one by Chambers.
HMV did not stock the Bandaged Together CD, even though Terry Wogan had implied that
they should have it, but I did buy his and Aled's 'Silver Bells' and Peter Kay's DVD for Children In Need.

Christmas Preparations

This part of December is always deceiving. You look at the date and think, fine, still two weeks to go, There's plenty of time. But I know from years of experience that this is not so.
While the bulk of the present buying is over, there's still the food to organise. I have the Christmas cake to decorate; should I stay traditional with the decoration (jolly red plastic santa and snowy house+gold greeting?) or try something different?
We haven't got the house decorated yet, but that hasn't really been my department for the last ten years - the elder of our grandsons has considered this to be his domain for the last 10 years - since he was 4!! In the past he has trimmed the tree, and directed us (my DH and myself) as to how to hang the garlands etc. Now he is taller than me he will no doubt dispense with my services altogether!
We also have to fetch Granny down to share the celebrations. She lives an hour away, so going to get her takes a little while, especially if we visit my brother who lives in the same area. And that leads me back to where I began. Date-wise there is plenty of time - but we go to fetch Granny on the 20th, we're dining out (Sunday lunch) with my brother and his DW and we've said we'll stay overnight before travelling back. This means we won't be back home until probably tea time on 21st. See where I'm heading? It's already just 3 days before the Big Day when we get back. And it's only 9 days before we go for Granny....!