Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas ... oh yeah!

An early family Christmas on Sunday.  First stop mums.  A big surprise, for the first year since dad passed away in 2007 she has set up a Christmas tree, with twinkly lights no less.  Just a little one but a tree nonetheless.  It made me smile to see the star she put on top was the star with dad's photo on it. It was a nice morning, quiet, but lovely.

Excuse the crazy eyes on me...



Then we headed for a get together with Mike's family, and three if Mike's children.  It was a lovely day but alas a number of arguments ensued.  The end of a long year perhaps, tensions get raised, all wanting to be there and it just gets too much.  All resolved by the end, but honestly, we got in the car to go home, took off, Mike glanced at me and all he said was "WELL F-ME".   Trust me, he didn't say just "F" !!

Now you know why we like hanging out in our little town here, no travelling, just the two of us.  Bliss.

A bit blurry and Wes went all arty farty on an angle, but I like this pic...


After last year Ann-Marie and I gave each other the same gift, quite randomly, we thought it was hysterically funny when we both unwrapped these, although this time same gift given by the same person.  Dyslexic anyone...



We stopped in at the cemetery on the way home to lay flowers and visit with my dad and Mike's mum and pay respects to one of Mike's mates who also passed away just before dad.

Big day, combined with four hours of driving round trip, it it's done.

We now however are owners of a coffee machine, much like the ones we had at all our accommodation venues in America.   Never really thought much about these machines, but my goodness THEY ARE GOOD!  What a treat to have a really enjoyable coffee after dinner. We have lots of different blends to try to work out our faves.

Ringo decided to get in on the act...



We won't even talk about that Scottish delicacy in the pic there.  Tablet it is called. Like a hard but not so hard crumbly fudge.  I made one batch on Saturday and it crumbled and was as hard as brickbats.  I made another batch and it is soft and fudge like and not at all pleasant.  Both binned.  Our neighbour's from across the road came over in the middle of these disasters. Neville took the recipe back home.  Look what was sitting on the bench when I got home tonight ... perfect Tablet!!! grrrr.  I will try third time lucky then give up.

Weather starting to warm up, yay! With a cool change late Thursday, boo.  Probably rain just in time for Friday, when our town's Carols by Candlelight are to be held in the Village Green.  Typical.  It was rained out last year too and had to be moved to the local hall.  Just not the same atmosphere I'm afraid.  Stay tuned on this front.

1 comment:

Lynne said...

Christmas can be so busy and so incredibly frustrating at times, can't it? And why is it that it brings out the worst in families?

We had a celebration with my sister's family, plus my mum and DD's family last weekend -- a round trip of over 1600 km for us! On Saturday we have my brother's family, both our mums and DD's family here (8 adults and 3 children under four). On Sunday we have WM's extended family's celebration. He is the eldest of six, all with spouses and children. In fact, his mum has seventeen grandchildren (most with partners) and thirteen great-grandchildren (aged between thirteen and nearly two). Thank goodness we odd not exchange presents with all those people -- just his mum!