Christmas time

Well a merry Christmas to you all and a very happy new year!

Christmas was lovely at our end. I broke up from work on the Friday but Alex finished on Wednesday, lucky thing! We packed our bags and drove to Coventry on the saturday to spend that day and night with my parents. It was hectic at ours until the last minute, phones ringing, plans being made, and a last minute trip to Kings Heath's butcher. It was a very successful trip! We'd paid for a Christmas hamper and when we laid out all the joints of meat and the turkey it made such an impressive sight we had to photograph it! Well, we do like our food...

But we finally got out the door and it was a very relaxing day and a half. Pads was a tad concerned, but we'd recruited Fran and Les to look after her!

We had Christmas lunch with mum and dad which was lovely and relaxed. We had a good chat and a 'sobremesa', and the meal was delicious. Then after a few hours af catching up my auntie Shelagh and Uncle David, younger uncle David and his fiancee Angela came over to say Merry Christmas. In June I'm going to be their bridesmaid-yey! Some of the party said merry Christmas more enthusiastically than others, with older uncle david dressing as Santa for a part of the evening!

When we got home me and Alex had a nice time preparing the turkey and we spent a few hours with Nathan and Laura and Emma. I think the 5 of us are as much a family as any other. Alex walked me to church, the bells were chiming for midnight mass, the air was crisp, it was a perfect Christmas Eve night. Then the vicar did a daft sermon about how he had a conversation with a puppet mouse and mice finding space in the nativity, and mice that lived in the church but looked more like a cat. Not sure what he was on about. So despite feeling aggrieved that for another year the 100's of people that had packed the church would probably not return the rest of the service was ok. Then we all met up again at Nathan and Laura's and opened each other's presents. It was lovely! Me and Alex walked home to wish the cat happy Christmas and get a good night's sleep.

Christmas day was great. We spent hours opening our presents. I was so relieved that Al liked his! Christmas lunch was festive and relaxed - followed as it was by a quick kip! Then we walked to Fran and Les' to watch Nicholas Nickleby, eat Christmas cake and talk. We didn't even have to walk back 'cause Les gave us a lift! Fab day...

Thank you to everyone who remembered us with cards, gifts and texts, it's my favourite day of the year!