Christmas, day 6

That makes it Sunday - we always have a combined service with three parishes together on the Sunday after Xmas.
This year it was at Shustoke, with coffee & a catch up afterwards - warm & friendly, with lots of hugging & kissing.
G has spent the day clearing the rest of the leaves in the field - 8 cubic metres!
I've made up beds, cleaned  ironed; everything is ready for the New Year celebrations - visitors tomorrow ready to join in lunch on Tuesday.
I have two salmon in the fridge & Morrison's brand new fish kettle in the porch, loads of new potatoes & ingredients for a number of deserts awaiting the Gordon Ramsey touch!
That's tomorrow taken care of.

G has had a soak in the bath & has just put the chickens to bed - two in the eglu & one perched on the field gate.
Whatever next?

We were going to the pictures to see "Impossible" tonight, but I've just checked the times & it's on at 19.00........from 1 Jan!!!
We'll enjoy a quiet night by the fire, reading the papers.  

Christmas day 4

We've spent a lovely Christmas, with most of the family.
Days 1, 2 & 3 were excellent - the turkey was moist (comments on the moistness of the turkey are compulsory) Christmas lunch went really well & everyone was relaxed.
We had some lovely presents & the grandchildren all loved their all-in ones - G covered me with the lovely rug that W & family gave me, when I fell asleep on the settee at tea-time today, before the fire was lit.
I have obviously reached my dotage!
B&E,T&KP arrived on Boxing day afternoon, shortly after P&A, J&G & families had left.
G & T worked together on T's hwk, planning a trip to China!
Yesterday Chris & Jan came to supper & we played the games that we'd practised with the family on Xmas day.
This morning I made the traditional dish with the last of the turkey (baked, in white sauce, covered with cheese & breadcrumbs), with a smaller one for Marg & Phil.
G has de-foliated the field & spring cleaned the eglu, whilst I did the laundry & turned the bedrooms around, ready for Peter & aj over the weekend.
We had a late lunch/early tea then I sat down & fell aslleep!
Shopping again tomorrow for lunch on New Year's Day. 

Happy Christmas.

,All is peace & joy - the turkey is stuffed, buttered, bedecked with bacon, foiled & has been in the oven for an hour, during which time we have wrapped the chipolatas in bacon, freed the chickens (1 egg, thank-you) & had a cup of tea.
The pressies are all wrapped & under the tree, the beds made up & the house is gleaming.
The family are arriving later.
What more could you want (apart from the rest of the family?)

We had a brandy & baklava at 1.00am & opened our presents, when we returned from Midnight Mass - a great service taken by the Diocesan Education Advisor, Peter Finch - a very tall man with a booming voice!

I hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful day with those you love.

Almost....

We have never been so organised for Christmas.
I collected the turkey from the farm shop, along with the chipolatas & a pork pie (Xmas day breakfast!), after taking the services t Sh & OW.
I have vacuumed through, made up 8 beds, put up the rest of the cards & ironed the last washing of 2012.
I have to do a final shop tomorrow for vegetables, cream, etc.
I intended to be there when M&S opened, but they are opening at midnight, so I won't be the first in.
Who on earth wants to shop/ has their brain in gear at midnight?

The weather girl has an Xmas knitted sweater dress with reindeer - very becoming.
I have a thin black & red sparkly jumper to wear with my black trousers, perhaps more suitable really.
Braunton, next to Saunton Sands has had 3ft of floodwater & on the news - the family should remember it as we went there regularly when the boys were young & we did the first holiday with the grandchildren, J & T only,  in 2005.

We went to Coventry Cathedral yesterday, compliments of E, to take part in the CWR recording of their Xmas day carol service - queued for an hour, around the block, but it was well worth it - on CWR tomorrow at 6.00pm & Xmas day at 1.00pm

Off to the Carol Service at Sh shortly - hope it's not too self indulgent - 9 readings, 7 carols & 27 choir items! 

Three sleeps to santa Claus

So Th calculated today - we have been entertained by J & Th today.
Lots to do - J helped me to lay the dining table for Xmas day, made the place names & did the seating plan with Th - a bit early, but done.
Th accompanied me around the village, him on a scooter, me putting flyers  through all doors with service times & greetings from Church - still a lot to do.
They made cards, J wrote a story & we had fresh boiled eggs for lunch - "best ever".
Later we went to Solihull to do a couple of jobs, & had tea at McDonalds (not me - coffee only)
Solihull was pretty quiet, even M&S!
Came home about 7.00pm, stopping at Morrisons en route to buy dinner - too knackered to do much cooking.
We are presently watching David Attenborough's new programme about evolution (recorded) - amazing. He is presently at Craille in N Scotland, on the beach with the fossilised stumps of trees that were 90ft tall along with 2.5m long millipedes & dragonflies with a 1m wingspan, all from the Carboniferous period - lots of oxygen in the air so faster growth.
Blimey!  
Do watch if you get the chance.

Sermon to write for services at Sh & OW on Sunday & family service to prepare for Xmas day, pressies to wrap, flyers to go to much of village, beds to make up, turkey to collect & shopping to complete.
All good fun!
Should I shop early tomorrow or Monday?
I favour Monday so I can stay at home tomorrow & catch up - weather looks atrocious - time to start building the ark!
Have a good weekend........

Sanity regns.......

Home again after a couple of days with JR -  a mentally unchallenging experience.
I took an M&S lunch to cook, which I put in the Rayburn whilst we took Abigail home.
After lunch we wrote JR's Christmas cards the went to JS to buy pressies - bottles & Christmassy bags!
We went on to have tea & a natter with Mary, then home to light the fire, toast a teacake & snooze.
The temp in the lounge topped 80+ degrees during the evening so sleep is inevitable.
JR had a late night - 9.20pm, I stayed uo even later.
Up at 8.30am to complete the presents, visit from a neighbour/reader for coffee (hot water in his case) then off to collect Abigail, JS for lunch (theirs - I had a skinny cappuccino) then home, load up & on the road again, back to Brum!
By the time we left JS, JR had forgotten who I was & thought we were looking for a taxi - perhaps partly my fault as we were actually looking for the volvo - hidden by a dratted 4x4!
All's well that ends well, so WS said anyway.

G & I went up to church to put the lights on, including the Xmas tree lights, before the school arrived for their carol service.
Chaotic parking as the Griffin car park was closed?
Di arrived, snapped at us that we had turned the outside light off (hadn't) & so we checked that a friend would turn off the tree lights & came home.

Scrunchy duck (JS - half price) for dinner - very good.
Bedtime.   

Monday, monday.

We've had a good weekend - a final shop on Saturday morning, followed by an afternoon of cooking - Gordon Ramsey's winter beef casserole (bouef bourginone with small cubes of celeriac & carrots; spelling looks dodgy!), fresh raspberry trifle & creme caramel.
G prepared the vegetables on Sunday morning whilst I made the other puds -steamed ginger sponge, chocolate & banana bread & butter pud & apple crumble.
Twenty five of us for lunch, which was scrummy & went very well, making £240 for sh church.
We left the clearing up & went to the Christingle service at NW at 4.00pm, then home to put the house in order & collapse on the settee.

We woke at 8.30am - complaint from the chickens, but two eggs during the day.
I played tennis, came home to shower , then we went to Solihull to collect J & Th from school & cook tea. J's school disco this evening - a real disco babe!

Home to eat the remains of yesterday's meal & give a little thought to Sunday's sermon - Advent 4, Mary/love.
One source tells me that it wasn't known where babies came from in Biblical times, so a virgin birth didn't mean a lot??