away in a manger . . .

. . . is possibly my favourite christmas carol

when eric and i were little we lived next door to a lovely couple called nan and cecil pollett and every christmas eve we would go and sing a carol outside their kitchen door and they would invite us in for a hot drink and mince pies (nan pollett had the best hand for pastry that i have ever known!!). every year we would sing 'away in a manger' and every year o would say 'oh sing something different this year'. we never did!! children are such little traditionalists - we never needed even to discuss it - we just stood outside the door and sang - and it was the same very year.

this year, stella taught kpie to sing it - which she did beautifully of course!! - on christmas eve we had a little ceremony of jpie putting the baby in the crib while we all sang - kpie had a 'solo' on the first verse! prior to this, i had put the baby in the cupboard the crib stands on and got him out to hand him to jago. kpie and jpie spent much of the evening hiding him back in the cupboard when they thought no-one was looking - hahaha!

CHRISTMAS 2006:

christmas eve:

frankie and alex collected o and g and brought them down to bushey and stella, rich and the pies came over too. we had a lovely meal all together - we had lasagne, salad and crusty bread - and it was just great to have all the generations together - the great-grandparents (o and g) in their 80s, then me, then stella and rich and frankie and alex all in their 20s, then the pies:kpie, jpie and cpie all under 4 and last but certainly not least, pipkin! terrific atmosphere!!

christmas day:

o and g and i were up for 'quick breakfast' and then early mass - stella, rich and the pies were there too - and janet and geoff came as well - an added bonus!!

back to our house for salmon and brioches and coffee and/or milk and then communal present openings

frankie arrived while we were 'presenting' and then stelps and co left for lunch at jackie's

alex and malcolm came soon after - it did feel a bit like victoria station!! - and we had a (very) late lunch and just generally sat around talking and relaxing into the evening - very pleasant day for most of us - poor frankie was unwell again with a recurrence of the 'bug' she had a couple of weeks ago

(footnote: she is ok now but has passed it on to alex!!)

boxing day:

we were up late today for a day of 'doing nothing'

stella came round just before noon and so we all had lunch together which was nice and relaxing and then stella went back to jackie's

watched a bit of tv and played cards in the evening - thinking of boogs who used to love a game of cards!

yesterday:

i took o and g home and was back here mid afternoon

frankie and alex popped round - f had been to the mid-wife: all well.

today:

stella, rich and pies round for lunch - more left-overs!! - and kpie and jpie had some of the 'special' christmas cake we made back in the autumn - they enjoyed it - yay!!!

jpie went for a little sleep after lunch and kpie, stella, rich and i played a game of ludo - i must say they play a very peculiar version which consists of building 'barriers'!! which made it last for ages!!

so that's christmas 2006 - and it was lovely!!!