Christmas shopping? really

We needed to go to Costco. No, really it was a need not a want. We had run out of bacon and nearly run out of decaff coffee so we had to go.
They had some good stuff on display so we were able to buy presents for all the sproglets under the age of 12. All those over 12 will get money!

We stopped to have a bite of lunch and while we were eating I noticed this small child sitting in the trolley and looking at a phone. It was the stillness and the expression on his face that caught my eye. He can't be older than two and yet he has the facial expression absolutely right and the hands are perfect.

I sneaked a picture while the two women he was with were totally unaware of what he was doing.

Monday and Me - Pink sky! No, really PINK SKY!

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone - sorry, it's just that when I think about how to start my ramblings I always come to Garrison Keillor's opening lines on his radio show. It has been a fairly ordinary week here at Macey Towers. Youngest Son and Mr M are both recovering well from their battle with viruses and bacteria but next in line was Darling Daughter. She was sent home from work and after two days did the "I'm indispensable" routine and struggled back in only to be sent home again. This time she accepted that she really was ill and took to her bed with her Bettermaker Blanket. She has gone off to London for a conference or course today so she is on the mend too.

On Friday we had builders - MY builders, the ones who did my cellar stairs and my kitchen AND my french doors in the breakfast room. The put this lovely new door with a tilt and turn window in the top into our study so that we can have a breath of fresh air in here and the rats cannot chew through the door frame because it is metal with a covering of plastic.

Isn't the colour of the sky amazing? NO I haven't done anything funny with photoshop that is really how it looked. Newport County were winning their football match against Spurs at the time so perhaps the sky was really full of flying pigs.

I loved the way the colour was reflected on the wall of the house behind us. I am also quite impressed with how tidy the kitchen looks, it's not usually that neat

Monday and Me - First day out since Christmas

As I write Mr M is in bed, having gone to work and then come home sick!! I can't remember him ever doing this before so it is a bit scary . We went out for our first little ride since before Christmas. Misty Black Mountains, grey and soggy Herefordshire and the Jo's Place for lunch. 

We needed bacon you see. Mr M bought a packet of sauce mix for Chicken and Bacon Pie and I thought I would try it. I have always done all my cooking from scratch so it is really strange to be using packets for sauces. I even use pre-packed pastry! If it's good enough for James Martin it's good enough for me.

We like Oakchurch bacon so we decided to go there and get some - and a few other things we were sure to desperately need. We went up via Abergavenny, Talgarth and the Wye Valley - not the narrow gorge between Monmouth and Chepstow, oh no, the proper wide open much more beautiful one around Hay on Wye. We love that route and never tire of seeing it in the different seasons, even when the sky has that If-It-Was-Two-Degrees-Colder-I-Would-Snow look about it. The cloud was so low it was getting it's bottom ripped by the tops of the mountains and the air had that slightly yellow flavour

Black Mountains looking decidedly grey

 We arrived at Oakchurch, which has become know as the Harrods of Herefordshire apparently. Paused to take a picture of their big turkey and then bought bacon, a quarter of lamb, some suet blocks for the birdies, a savoy cabbage for Sunday dinner and a couple of different potato peelers because our favourite one broke and nothing we have tried since has been as good

Big Turkey!

 Then we went to Jo's PLace at Whitchurch, just outside Ross on Wye for lunch. We talk so much about so many subjects when we are in the car on our own. I just love this special time. For various reasons - mostly because we don't share a taste in TV programmes - we tend to sit in different rooms to watch TV. Another reason being that as soon as Mr M sits in his chair in the front room he goes to sleep so watching TV with him is like watching on my own but with added snoring. I can't sit at the table for too long without my ankles swelling so I have to elevate my legs - sitting in the car is different because he concentrates on driving and we talk. No chance of the phone ringing or the doorbell just us. Absolute heaven!

Each table has its own cruet set and they are cleaned and changed so every time we go there is a different one on the table. This time we had piggies

Monday and Me - All Gone

I think this has to be my favourite picture of the whole Christmas period. Sweet little Boots (she is polydactyl, hence the name) getting to know Mr M.

All the food is gone. The green and furry offerings to the Fridge Gods have been cleared out. The sausage rolls that have passed my stringent use by date have gone to work with Mr M to feed the birdies outside his office. Youngest son has gone back to work and all our visitors have left for home.

I do love to have a full house at this time of year and Wicked Uncle Cliff arriving in the dull days between Christmas and New Year has become a tradition that we really look forward to. Miss Boo likes to take him shopping and then not spend any of his money. He loves that she knows exactly what she wants and she knows that he would give her the moon if she asked but she doesn't ask - ever. She has already chosen what she would like and once her mind is set that's it.

He offers her all sorts of stuff ( the outcome of one of these encounters was the arrival of a five feet tall giraffe. Seeing the courier struggling with that was interesting) and sometimes she can be persuaded, but usually she is content with her original choice.

Now everyone is back to work, although Mr M has a cough and a runny nose. I was happy that he had gone to the Dr for the flu jab only to discover, last night, that he didn't go this time because he has decided that the constant pain in the muscle of his left arm is not arthritis as the Dr says but caused by the flu jab last year (which is when the pain started, apparently). So now I am worried. I am pretty sure it isn't flu because he can still get out of bed. If it was real flu he would not be able to get upright. I remember having real flu once and I was two weeks in bed before I could even stand.

We had a parcel with chocolates from a friend so I sent it all down to Miss Boo rather than be tempted to stuff my face. I haven't taken a single picture this year because I haven't felt well enough - in fact I haven't been outside the door since we walked down to my Daughter's house for Christmas dinner. I might not go out until spring

Happy New Year everyone

Visitors

Eldest Son and family came to see us. We like it when this happens. I get a few precious minutes with my daughter-in-law and a lot of hugs from the children. Both grandsons are adorable and full of fun and their baby sister has reached the stage where she is beginning to compete for attention. As most children are fearless at this age (nearly two) this means that Mummy spends a lot of time grabbing her before she falls off whatever she has climbed up.

Grandpa has a box with presents!

"Look Grandma, a box of tricks!"

"He gets tricks but all they let me play with is oranges"

"Your not allowed in the kitchen until you are ten years old Miss!"
"Marmar, I found this, It was here so I had to get it"

Oh, look! It's Sooty!

Monday? Christmas? oh yes!

We went to Darling Daughter's for our dinner. I could get used to this tradition.

Cousin Travis sent us a fabulous print of his painting. The colours are so vibrant you can feel the heat of the High Desert in Californis. I love it!

"It's a glass", she said "Because you are not an amateur" he said.

You have to have seen the schweppes advert to appreciate her non-Amateur status with the G&T

"excuse me Grandpa, can I whisper in your ear?" We thought for a while he might have to eat dinner with a shoulder ornament but she needed the loo so he was saved

We lit the twinkly lights poured the wine and grape juice and then turned the "big light" on so we could see each other and the food

Miss Boo tucking in to her dinner - note that she has her own gravy boat, just like Grandpa

White Christmas - The big screen movie

I was so taken up with excitement over having Mr M home for the holidays I forgot to tellyou all about my Saturday afternoon treat

My Darling Daughter and Miss Boo treated me to a showing of White Christmas on the big screen. Our local theatre does showings of 'classic' films.

I was so excited and we had front row seats. I have never managed to get through this film without crying because it was my Dad's favourite. He was in WW2 so the bits with the soldiers resonated with him. Christmas 1944 saw him very close to where the Americans were fighting the Battle of the Bulge and then in February 1945 he was badly injured and shipped home to meet my mother.

Anyhoo, this film brings back memories of my Dad for me and my daughter so the chance to see it on the big screen was not to be missed. 

We cried and sang and cried and laughed all the way through and the ending just got to me as usual so I was wiping my eyes as I sang/sobbed "We'll follow the Old Man, wherever he wants to go..." and thinking how marvellous that my Dad saw this in the cinema all those years ago.

They even made it snow on us at the end and as we filed out of the cinema studio there were warm mince pies. We have suggested that a showing of this film before Christmas should happen every year - make it a tradition, after all that's how traditions start. We would go - as long as I could walk I would go - I loved it and seeing the film on the big screen was so much better.

Merry Christmas to all *cue music* "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, with every christmas card I write ..."