christmas time . . . mistletoe and wine . . .

here's a quick catch-up:

saturday:

stella, rich and i fell into various beds around 2.00 a.m. - the pies and lucia had all been fast asleep since about 7.30/8.30

once we were up it was mainly taking stuff back (cutlery, crocks, wine glasses and the car) and also collecting frankie and alex from the noke where they had spent the night.

heaps and heaps of tidying and in the evening went to jackie's for a lovely meal. we were: jackie, pete, brian, ruth, rich, stella, elizabeth, barry, anna, isabelle, ryan, jemma, andrew and self. brian had made a nice starter - and also some seasonal reindeer meat - and then jackie had made curry with accompaniments including naan bread - yumm! i was very tired however, and had to excuse myself before 11.00.

sunday:

mainly tidying i think and when i was completely finished watched 'father of the bride' for the aah factor

monday (christmas eve):

up to yorkshire by early afternoon. what a wonderful christmas it was!!! the pies were lovely and we all had lots of laughs. stella cooked a brilliant christmas dinner which we had that night as they were travelling back down to hertfordshire on boxing day and wanted to have as few left-overs as poss. it was delish!!!!!

christmas day:

splendid!! what can i say? christmas with the pies is just the best!! mainly we just sat around talking and eating and drinking - we watched 'polar express' with the pies in the afternoon and 'love actually' in the evening. their house is so cosy, the company was wonderful and the only sad thing was missing frankie, alex and lucia. we all went to bed tired but happy.

boxing day:

down to ashby around mid-day and managed to catch o and g still there and then went with eric to take them back home. they had all had a lovely christmas too. eric and i were back home by early evening. we were so full after lunch we didn't need supper so just sat around talking and drinking wine for yonks

thursday and friday:

home again - robin has been and collected the marquee and associated bits and pieces

stella and rich have gone back to yorkshire minus the pies for a couple of days adn called in briefly on the way home

i went over to hazlemere to spend the evening with the fairlies yesterday - had a lovely time - this was the first time i have been there since they moved in - it is very homely and cosy and i had a great evening. lucia was very sweet - malcolm gave here a little rocking horse (except it is a reindeer) for christmas and she just loves it - she is very sweet