Christmas Day 2006

Sarah left about 10.30 to fetch Mum and Dad over from West Kirby. Meanwhile Helen arrived and dysoned the hall and living room, and she and David carried piles of boxes of books up to Sarah's room so that the living room was relatively free of clutter. John slaved over a hot stove, and finally the turkey was ready.



The Girls did a grand job with the table, and rushed around dishing up while John carved. Sarah acted as Wine Waiter, a bottle of Mumm Champagne that she bought when she went champagne-tasting in Paris in the summer. It proved to be a bit on the lively side, but the only casualty was a soggy paper serviette. And the champagne was delicious.



We had all the trimmings with the bird - sprouts, carrots, parsnips, roasties, cranberry jelly, bread sauce (with a clove-studded onion in of course!), chipolatas, sausagemeat stuffing and herb stuffing. This was made according to Mum's recipe, Sarah was curious where it came from. "The Radiation Cookbook" was Mum's reply. Conjures up strange ideas now, but her first cooker was a gas cooker, and I think the book came with the cooker.



There was some talk of Christmas Pudding when we'd cleared our plates, but everyone was too full.



So we headed to the living room to open some parcels. Lots of chocolates! Dad was feeling pretty tired I think, seemed to be falling asleep all the time. Of course they both have a snooze in the afternoon usually, so I guess habit caught up. They left quite early - about half three I think. I had a feeling that there was a parcel missing, so checked under the tree. And there was one last present for Mum and Dad - Jacobs cheese footballs too, so it would have been sad if they'd missed it! But I hammered on the window, and John came in and fetched it. At least it meant they had another parcel to open when they got home.



Tree finally went up on Christmas Eve - it's not enormously tall, but it's sure WIDE! We couldn't find the tinsel, or the crib. Think there must be another box lurking in the loft still. Let's hope we find it next year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Folks!

I've spent the last two days mostly in bed, wrapping parcels. I wish I'd taken photos of the ones I did for John's Mum, one totally over the top with feathers, the other very small and tasteful, decorated with a tiny red braid with blue and white hearts on it. That one was finished off with a miniature gold luggage label as a gift tag. We gave her the parcels yesterday when she visited with Helen and David.

Meanwhile, the Christmas Rats were investigating some of the parcels.....



... before snuggling up for a final snooze with their friends the Christmas Cuddlies before they get wrapped up. You'll be relieved to hear that the kittens are staying with mother cat. Bagpuss seems to have fallen asleep again and toppled backwards. Maybe he's been at the brandy for the Christmas pudding!



If you look hard in the top left of the picture you can just see Rescue Kitten* peering round my pillow to see what all the fuss is.

*He was a gift last Christmas. You donate in someone's name to the Cat Protection League, and you get a kitten cuddly to give to that person.