This time last month I was getting excited about Christmas, and looking forward to the two weeks of luxurious holiday that awaited. Well, I can tell you that those two weeks lived up to the anticipation!
James & I had a very lazy holiday, with long lie ins, bacon sandwiches for brunch, plenty of time curled up on the sofa watching films, reading books, and (after Christmas) playing on the PS3.
Christmas Day
I am pleased to report that this my first attempt at cooking Christmas Dinner was a success… James & the dogs seemed to devour everything that was put in front of them at least!
The day started off with stockings (just minus twenty from our ages to get our mental age when we woke up on Christmas morning and you’d be about right) and, of course, the Muppet Christmas Carol! James-Santa put together a brilliant stocking for me, filled with goodies from Hotel Chocolat, Aussie stuff, a bottle of Mateys bubble bath, moleskine notebooks.. even a crayola colouring book & crayons, amongst other silliness.
I have to say that James’s stocking was a masterpiece. He had LEGO, a rubber duck, and a t-shirt which mocks his thinning hair.
The dogs had a stocking (from Dave, our old neighbour), doggie chocolate coins (from my mum) and a selection box (from us). It is going to take quite a while for them to work through all those treats, though they were eager to get started straight away!
After watching the traditional muppet film, I got started on Christmas dinner. There was a LOT of food. But it was good, and we ate lots of leftovers for several days so there wasn’t much wasted at all (Homily certainly doesn’t think her contribution to eating up what was left was a waste at least!).
While it was cooking, we relaxed, ate chocolate, played about with our stocking stuff & stuck Christmassy stuff on the tv. I did some colouring (I rock!), James made his crafty reindeer thing (with glittery space glue no less) and James got himself & the dogs out from under my feet for a while by taking them for a snowy walk in the park. I feel the need to point out that James used the reindeer’s ears as eyebrows, and that it looks dead because he couldn’t make it sit up. Oh, and one of it’s legs doesn’t actually seem attached.
After we ate the brilliant food, it was time for presents! I got some really lovely gifts from people and was quite touched at some things in particular – a beautiful watch from my parents, perfume from a friend of mine, a crochet book from @trialia, and a dog story book from James. I love surprises :-). Here is my stash of pressies!
And of course, the highlight of the present opening was the PS3! I have to admit I teared up a tiny bit when I saw how excited and happy my husband was when he unwrapped it, I’m such a lame person sometimes! We spent the rest of the day setting it up & playing games.. as well as eating chocolate, cheese & biscuits, and pavlova – yum!
More photos from Christmas Day here at my flickr set!
James’s Birthday
My poor husband is unfortunate enough to have his birthday fall in that wilderness between Christmas Day & the New Year. The day started with presents & ended with a trip to our favourite Chinese restuarant, Lychee Garden. Victor came with us (everyone else cancelled!) and we had a great time.. and Victor was kind enough to treat us to the meal as a birthday present, so yay! After the meal we headed home to partake of some Christmas Yule Log Birthday cake (he picked it! I offered to get him any cake they had in the shop, and they had proper birthday ones!), which I managed to cram a load of candles on.. it was a bit of a fire risk to be honest! The three of us played singstar & chatted for a few hours, then Vic headed home and we crawled to bed, it was a great evening!
I gave James another game for the PS3, as well as a film and a few other bits & pieces. There wasn’t an awful lot of money left over for smaller presents after I bought the playstation! He also got the Star Trek bluray from his Mum, along with the Chris Moyles Parody Album (which is hilarious, by the way).
New Year’s Eve
Some friends (Victor/Joe and his lovely girlfriend Rachel, Suzi and @serenium) came around to help us celebrate the new year. I already blogged about a bit it the morning after, so instead of repeating myself I give you this…
The Rest of the Holiday
Well, it was kind of lost to this, which I have almost completed:
I have completed the storyline, and just need to collect the last of the feathers, do a few more assassinations, and raid some treasure chests. Great stuff!
