December

Here we are in December already and nearly the festive season. It soon comes round when you are full of colds and bugs. Its been a nasty few weeks of Covid and now man flu ( or lady flu ? it's hard to tell them apart ) The booster jabs have little or no effect. Anyway I wont go into the gory details. Lovely to have Archie home for a few days - here he is with his Mom - lighting up the traditional fuse. Or trying to. Soggy paper? Soggy fuse? maybe just a impregnated doily? A coaster? We shall probably never know. Anyway we shall attempt to eat drink and be merry despite all the germs and bugs. Same to you!

Early Birthday and Crimble Celebration

Nice afternoon with the Eves. They were off soon to Oz so we had an early surprise birthday lunch and combined Crimble treats. I made a frittata with two salads- sour dough bread. Trifle that Hazel made with lashings of sherry! Went for a drizzly walk down the lane - rain got faster so we ran home for tea and ecclefechens ( sort of mini mincemeat tarts wiuth nuts ) Yum! I almost nidded off in the front room - not very good for a host! Tony and Pene didn't seem to mind - they were looking at books and chatting to Hazel.

Merry Crumble!

Here we are gathered round the festive twig. Had a nice day out yesterday in Liverpool despite the gloomy weather. Good to see the Alice In Wonderland exhibition at the Tate although we felt it could have been a bit more fun - for the kids. A nice maze or a Mad Hatter's Tea Party or something. It was all a bit too serious and celebral despite the inclusion of Bill Woodrow and Peter Blake. Lots of stuff that really shouldn't have been in it. Also popped in the Walker to see the Matisse books but as Hazel said the gallery lacked that spark - felt a bit isolated and empty. Some terrible pretentious twaddle on at the other gallery I always forget the name of. No festive joy there. We had lunch in the Hole In The Wall which was a mistake as it was very busy and we waited ages for our egg on toast which turned out to be an egg toasted sandwich with a side salad. Which we didnt mind too much as it turned out cheaper. A lot of noise though from rowdy diners.

Didn't do much shopping as it was so incredibly crowded with queues forming outside some trinket shops - so obvious still lots of money about.
Popped into the Oxfam and the Comic shop and found some books we liked but not the price. I've done most of my Xmas shopping anyway. Just some chestnuts and puff pastry to get and we shall be almost there!

Santa Snowman Race

Here we are at Granma's and the special crackers this years contain either a racing Santa or a racing Snowman which definately was one of the highlights of Xmas Day - the exploding pudding and the renegade parsnip coming a close joint second.
I feel about three stone heavier now and my brain is turned to mush. The game of Monotony didn't help. I fell asleep during Dr, Who so missed most of that. Not many jokes from the Queen this year - she really should get Adam and Joe to write her scripts.
Hopefully going for a Boxing Day walk after a nice light salad today although we a have a ton of leftovers to get through. We seem to have bought enough stuff for a longish seige.
Now where is that extra thick pair of Xmas socks?

Do You Feel Christmassy Yet?

Not in this drizzle I dont! Just back from a shopping trip to town. My duffle coat soaks up the rain like a sponge. We have our lights up and flashing - so do the neighbours. We have new noisy ones from Poland or somewhere foreign. They seem friendly enough but shout very loudly in Polish or whatever it is. Hard to work out who actually lives there as I've seen at least 5 different people coming and going. They have at least two flashy cars- a BMW and a Passat. They'll find parking a nightmare down our street - one of the reasons the last couple moved out apparently.
O well , it's early days yet. Watch this space for further neighbour news.
I did the collaged xmas card again this years and got 100 printed at Boots for 8p each. We spent most of the weekend sticking them down onto card and folding and enveloping , rubber stamping etc. I posted a heap of them this morning and spent this afternoon doing more. One wonders if it's worth all the time and effort!
No time to feed the ducks this weekend. More shopping and sliding on the trecherously slippy pavements!
Woolies was heaving due to a 50% off lots of things Sale, but not much I wanted sadly. I did queue up to buy a calender on Sunday when it was relatively quiet.
Fascinating stuff eh?
Hazel made a christmas cake with the help of his nibs. It looks good enough to eat. I was thinking about making some mince pies but probably easier to buy them. Mine tend to erupt like mini volcanoes and spill sticky goo all down the pie dishes like so much treacley lava! It hell to wash off afterwards.