Christmas.
It has been a good Christmas. We were invited to lunch at the Nice Young Household, so no early morning food prep to do. I had coffee and shortbread for breakfast, and opened the blinds about 9.15 am to this!
What a glorious sight! Then I wrapped the last few parcels (I am always a late wrapper!), and went to Church. D-d and NYK2 met me there and it was, as usual, a lovely, happy, service of carols, candles and Christmas presents!
They went home to continue getting lunch ready - I went home, had coffee with S2C and opened my gift from him - a beautiful rose-gold watch.
We were due in Union Mills at 12.30, and it was lovely to sit and chat with the NYM's parents and the children, with occasional input from D-d and the NYM as their open plan area allowed them to chat and cook at the same time.
Lunch was lovely. To fit in with everyone's preferences, apart from turkey, stuffing, cranberry and apple sauce, gravy and pigs in blankets* there were Yorkshire puddings and 7 choices of vegetables! We decided we had no room for pudding at that point, and spent the next hour opening the presents under their tree.
(*recently I saw an American picture of a sausage roll labelled as a pig in a blanket. In case you are confused by the term, we did not have sausage rolls! We had what we all know as pigs in blankets which are cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon.)
NYK2 had done her own Christmas shopping for the first time, and she was really pleased that we were all very happy with them - good chocolate for S2C and Turkish delight and a little planter for the conservatory for me, equally well planned gifts for her grandparents.
And proof that my daughter knows me very well. When I was shopping in the Museum shop for gifts I bought myself the festive Manx seal to hang on the tree - as per icon. I mentioned here that it had been hard to decide between that and the Christmas basking shark. D-d knew nothing about this when she went shopping for our gifts...
Yes - she bought me a festive Manx basking shark! Also a needle felting kit - I have been saying I would really like to do this.
We decided on trifle and coffee about 3.30pm - D-d had used the blackberries that had been soaking in brandy since early September to make blackberry brandy as the fruit in the trifle... it was very, very, good. And the NYM's mum and I each got a small bottle of the blackberry brandy to take home.
We returned home just in time for Christmas Strictly Come Dancing, and had brie en croute with bread fingers and tortilla chips for our supper around 9.30.
All in all a lovely, lazy day.
And yesterday I lazed around in my slippers all day, read, and cooked us a small turkey joint with some of the trimmings for our dinner last night - and so far today I have not been any more energetic either!
What a glorious sight! Then I wrapped the last few parcels (I am always a late wrapper!), and went to Church. D-d and NYK2 met me there and it was, as usual, a lovely, happy, service of carols, candles and Christmas presents!
They went home to continue getting lunch ready - I went home, had coffee with S2C and opened my gift from him - a beautiful rose-gold watch.
We were due in Union Mills at 12.30, and it was lovely to sit and chat with the NYM's parents and the children, with occasional input from D-d and the NYM as their open plan area allowed them to chat and cook at the same time.
Lunch was lovely. To fit in with everyone's preferences, apart from turkey, stuffing, cranberry and apple sauce, gravy and pigs in blankets* there were Yorkshire puddings and 7 choices of vegetables! We decided we had no room for pudding at that point, and spent the next hour opening the presents under their tree.
(*recently I saw an American picture of a sausage roll labelled as a pig in a blanket. In case you are confused by the term, we did not have sausage rolls! We had what we all know as pigs in blankets which are cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon.)
NYK2 had done her own Christmas shopping for the first time, and she was really pleased that we were all very happy with them - good chocolate for S2C and Turkish delight and a little planter for the conservatory for me, equally well planned gifts for her grandparents.
And proof that my daughter knows me very well. When I was shopping in the Museum shop for gifts I bought myself the festive Manx seal to hang on the tree - as per icon. I mentioned here that it had been hard to decide between that and the Christmas basking shark. D-d knew nothing about this when she went shopping for our gifts...
Yes - she bought me a festive Manx basking shark! Also a needle felting kit - I have been saying I would really like to do this.
We decided on trifle and coffee about 3.30pm - D-d had used the blackberries that had been soaking in brandy since early September to make blackberry brandy as the fruit in the trifle... it was very, very, good. And the NYM's mum and I each got a small bottle of the blackberry brandy to take home.
We returned home just in time for Christmas Strictly Come Dancing, and had brie en croute with bread fingers and tortilla chips for our supper around 9.30.
All in all a lovely, lazy day.
And yesterday I lazed around in my slippers all day, read, and cooked us a small turkey joint with some of the trimmings for our dinner last night - and so far today I have not been any more energetic either!