Cherry takes the reins

weenancyinAmerica

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Boxing Day with the family. Have enjoyed reading your diary all year and look forward to reading much more.

Keedie

Merry Christmas, I hope you and your husband have had a good day and your family too. xx

Cherryfudge

It's been a lovely day: a nice slow start with a few presents unwrapped, then out to church where a 'chocolate nativity' featured. (The names of as many chocolate treats as possible are worked into the nativity story, for instance the angels appeared 'Twix't heaven and earth. Hands go up every time one is spotted, and the person gets the named chocolate - DH spotted the wise men came on 'caramels'). It's a bit of fun but led nicely into a more serious message.

I managed to chat to a few people afterwards without stressing my voice, so I can feel an improvement.

Dinner was slow-cooked gammon and chicken, which worked really well. It was very succulent. I was as MSE as possible, adding some sad peppers to the roast veg, and using the oven space to the full, with potatoes baking at the bottom while the veg and roasties were at the top. I also discovered the cranberry sauce and red currant jelly were out of date, but they seem edible so I have a mini mission to use them up and create a little more fridge space.

After dinner and the Christmas Celebrity Bakeoff, we went round to A and H's for a few hours. DGD2 is too little to do anything with presents so her big sister opened some for her. DGD1 is at a delightful stage where she opens something then spends a while playing with it before she wants to open anything else.

We left theirs about 5.30 and went home to the rest of our presents, smoked salmon for tea and the Christmas GB Throwdown this evening. We've not had a Christmas like this before but it worked very well. I'm now the proud owner of a Le Creuset cafetiere, and various other things including another piece for my Denby collection.

I'd intended to text or email various people but haven't managed many . I hope to do a few more tomorrow.

Floss

Sounds like a lovely well-paced day.

Cherryfudge

It's been a good Boxing Day. Bright and a bit cold after recent mildness, but DH was determined to get some exercise so he went for a bike ride first thing. I had a bit of a tidy up and put a couple of loads of laundry on, and when DH got home we walked into town and watched the Boxing Day Meet. I love that they are so well turned out, though there were so many people that it wasn't easy to see. I've not been for a few years but I do like to watch. One of the horses was particularly festive, with red tinsel plaited into its mane. Seeing them move off, though, brought tears to my eyes because those horses had their ears forward and a spring in their step: they were clearly having a great time.

The crowd dispersed quickly enough afterwards and we went to try to exchange a jumper I'd bought for DH which was too loose. Unfortunately I'd bought it too early so they won't take it back, but he found the same in his size and bought that.

Called into the supermarket on the way back then DH made dinner. Leftovers, of course! That's all the cooked veg eaten, but plenty of chicken, gammon and potatoes still to go. I think I will freeze what I can tomorrow as I prefer not to have daily meat.

The afternoon was a baking session with the last of the wrapping - DH was a great help as he not only wrapped, he iced the cakes. I felt like Mother Christmas with the back of the car full of stockings and edibles as we drove over to A and H's. The rest of the family was already there, with a feast. We were there over four hours, talking, then eating, then a massive present-opening session followed by a quiz from A. DGD1 was funny, as she picked out whichever present took her fancy and delivered it to whoever she thought fit. As not all DS2's girlfriend's presents had fitted in her stocking, she ended up with a heap of them, not all hers.

J wasn't going to come as she's under the weather, but in the end she just tried to keep her distance from us. It sounds very much as though she's got the cold I had. At least she's off till next week, so she should be able to rest and get past it.

Expenditure:
Clothing £18.
Housekeeping £2.??

I'm more than ready to sleep now.

Cherryfudge

Today is a quiet day at home: DH has a day's work then six days off due to the way his rota and the season fall. I've said I'll go to help with church cleaning this afternoon, and this morning is my usual slow start.

I'm very glad I got most of the washing done yesterday, as it's steady, heavy rain and there's wind forecast for this afternoon. The inside of the house looks as though it's been in a storm, too, so I have plenty to do in the way of tidying and decluttering. We even brought home a sack of wrappings as A and H's bin is full and they will be away when it's due to be collected. I can't sort it as it's still in the car which DH has taken. It's far too wet to cycle to work, and he had a follow-up appointment with cardiology this morning at the hospital, so he needed the car for that, too. They've wired him up to a portable monitor, but he hasn't had any recurrence of his symptoms so we're kind of hoping it was a one-off.

Another job will to find DH's work pass, which has disappeared without trace. We've both searched. At least he has a few days in which he doesn't need it. While looking for it last night, I found my missing pencil case that I thought I'd left somewhere when we were away last February. It was under the immoveable sofa.

So far today I've sent out some photos from yesterday evening and got a chickpea tikka out of the freezer for tonight, to have with a couple of baked potatoes. I sense a need for another fridge tidying session so things don't go to waste.

I might also have a read of my Christmas books and water my Secret Santa daffodils.

Cherryfudge

I'm having a think about what presents worked well, as I'm ashamed of myself for inflicting so many on the family! Some are obviously more meaningful than others: people spent a while working their pens out, but I'm not sure why! They were biros made with recycled paper. Perhaps omit those another time?

The lads were relatively interested in the lotions and hair products - gel gets used but heavy duty hand cream is good for most people (I didn't give any. ). The girls were moderately happy with their handbag-sized hand creams. Cans of soft drink are gone almost at once. Mini bubbles got banned in the house so I need to remember that in future - not a no-no, but will depend on where we meet.

DS1's girlfriend was happy with a packet of daffodil bulbs, but I think it would have been wrong for anyone else.

Books went down well, especially with DGD who 'read' her Dad's thick paperback for some time!

Silly toys were probably the biggest success. DS2 had a mirror jigsaw, A had a battery-operated train set and L had a voice-changing gadget. It's harder to buy things like that for the ladies, somehow. The people who got notebooks seemed to like those: who doesn't like new stationery? Hot chocolate is always welcomed, as are marshmallows, fudge and chocolate.

I'll add more thoughts if any occur.

ETA: practical DIY things are a winner: I got voltage testing screwdrivers for each of the men in the hope they will get used, and they seemed to go down well, though A remonstrated with me for not giving the game away. He'd had to search out a small Phillips screwdriver to lend to L, who needed to get into a battery compartment to try out the voice changer!

Cherryfudge

The daffodils have been watered and a small amount of tidying has been done, but nothing impressive.

I found some waterproofs for my walk down to do the cleaning but actually it wasn't too wet. I can see the wind and rain are due again tonight and I've warned A to be careful as they're driving up to Scotland tomorrow. Meanwhile a colleague gave me a lift home.

Lunch was soup and yogurt. Dinner was chickpea tikka with baked potatoes followed by the last of the Christmas pud. This doesn't yet equate to plenty of space in the fridge! Neither have I frozen the rest of the meat but DH says he'll make a pie tomorrow, which will help rationalise amounts to put in the freezer.

I've not spent anything today.

I think I'm still getting over the virus I had, as I fell asleep on the sofa earlier. It's not as though I'd done a huge amount.

I'm also mulling over New Year's resolutions, including wondering whether to start a fresh diary. My situation has changed a lot: my financial challenges are no longer primarily about the long process of sorting out my Mum's old house and estate, but about being on a zero hours contract, having crumbled under the pressures of a job I'd loved and now don't feel I can return to.  I'm trying to find a new way, when I fully expected to be on a steady track towards retirement. So: a very different picture.

I will give it more thought.

Cherryfudge

For the record: here's my summary of clothing bought this year, as recorded for Fashion on the Ration. I'm carrying on with it next year, but I probably need to reduce my second hand buying.  I'm hoping to get the sewing machine out and learn to use it and follow a pattern, but I'm also hoping that if 'they' can get a local repair cafe going, I'll be able to use my mending skills to spread the love locally.

Honeysucklelou2

Caught up again…your Christmas sounds delightful with your DGD1 helping out with the present giving.