Christmas

Well, here we are on the other side of the Christmas festivities. ;o) I had a lovely time and, for a variety of reasons, enjoyed Christmas this year much more than the last few. I'm very pleased to report that everyone who received a "different" present seemed very happy with them and encouraged by that I'm already thinking about similar things for next year! I started my Christmas with a Midnight Eucharist service at a local C of E church and really enjoyed it. The church is quite high but even so the service was lovely and I even wanted to go up for Communion, which I did. I haven't taken Communion since I stopped going to my own church earlier in the year and I'm really glad that I went up, even though I had to do the chalice thing (ick!) and, my goodness, the wine was SO strong!! Christmas Day started later than anticipated as Miss E didn't get up until gone 9am and that was with some gentle prompting! Lunch went down rather nicely - I really enjoy cooking a good roast. ;o) I made Nigella Lawson's gingerbread stuffing which was scrummy although nearly didn't happen as the rest of the world and his wife apparently had the same idea and there wasn't a sign of a ginger cake in Sainsburys! I eventually found one in the Devil's Supermarket express shop. A side note while I'm on the subject of the Devil shop - at the beginning of December I filled out a comment/complaint slip asking why they don't stock organic skimmed milk (as Sainsbury's do) and this morning I finally had a reply (within seven days, yeah right!!) saying that they'd spoken to stock control and they would be stocking it in the next 7 to 10 days. About time too! But I digress, back to Christmas Day! We ate our lunch in the newly plastered "other" living room with a roaring fire. ;o) It's far from finished, of course, but we're SO much closer and getting there bit by bit. A boost to the house fund from our generous benefactor has also perked up the outlook house renovation wise too! ;o) And to Boxing day....we spent the day at my parent's house with more food, more games, more jollifications. ;o) This was followed by more of the same at my aunt's on Wednesday after we'd taken FIL home. That's my Christmas in a very small nutshell! I'm now revving up for a little gathering of friends on New Year's Eve and then plunging into 2007 with gusto! ;oD