It was a funny sort of New Year's Eve. D. had a horrible cold and was not very well at all on Wednesday or Thursday, so he went to bed early. I stayed up, playing with my blog, but intending to have an early night.
I did go to bed early, but we couldn't sleep. Poor D. had such a headache and stuffy nose, so I went and put the kettle on. At midnight, we were sitting up in bed together, like a little old couple, drinking cups of hot tea and munching almond shortbread!
I did sleep okay after that though and managed very well yesterday. I got the house tidy enough (perfect is not what I aspire to these days - I've learned to accept "Good Enough" and it's amazing how much stress that avoids!). I cleaned the bathrooms on New Year's Eve, so that was one less job. So I did the kitchen, hoovered and tidied, gave the guinea-pigs a nice clean home and made the lunch.
We had two half-legs of lamb to roast, with nice vegetables and potatoes etc. Then the other Christmas Pudding with custard... My nieces both came, with their husband / bf and baby E. My mum came too, so there were nine of us for lunch. Baby E sat in the booster-chair, so she had her own table, which meant that 8 could squash round our little table and have just enough room to eat and have fun.
In the afternoon we gave C. and DC. their presents, as they were at DC's for Christmas Day. I didn't get any pictures, which is a pity... we gave C. a pretty wooden jewellery box, with a bracelet and ear-rings and for DC a t-shirt that said "Buy This Man a Beer" - he was very pleased with it and says he'll wear it to the pub - ever hopeful!
I played with the baby and then her daddy and DC took her out in the pram, while the rest of us sat down and played UNO. It's such a great game for a bigger group of people, especially if you can get into the spirit of it and just enjoy the chaos. My mum was being a little card devil... J. invented a new card for our UNO set. It came with 4 spare blank ones, so he made one of each colour, of an "Explosion" card. It's just a picture of a big explosion (you know, zig-zags inside each other, with a white centre, cartoon-style). If someone has an Explosion card of the current colour, they can play it and make all other players pick up 3 cards! Mum got about 3 of them and was very evil about when she played them. Our first game went on for nearly an hour! By then the lads were back and the baby was snuggled up snoozing.
We had snacks and sandwiches for tea and everyone went home about 6:45... by which point we were all three of us worn out. In fact, D. had gone upstairs for a short rest at about 2pm and he didn't re-appear til we had finished tea. He looked much better though and no-one minded.
It was a lovely way to spend New Year's Day - a family day - starting 2010 as I'd wish to go on, with a visit from our lovely family.
I was thinking, yesterday morning, about the good things in my life and what I / we had achieved. We had been watching the garden, as there were some special visitors outside, eating berries. As I was thinking, J got the binoculars and went to look out of the window at the birds, full of interest and excitement.
It occurred to me that, one of our greatest achievements as a couple has been raising a boy who is lively, fun, full of intelligence and interest, keen to live his life to the full. I hope for a wonderful future for him and I'm glad we have done well for him so far!
There is much to look forward to in 2010. I hope most of it will be good, though I know there will be a few sad events.
- My younger niece and her boyfriend are expecting a baby, due in February or March.
- I will have some scrapping work published in a book and hope to make a lot more of my shop, my book-binding and other skills too.
- D. starts a new job on January 11th.
- My lovely workroom is planned and on the way to completion... J's room is pretty well finished and there's only a little left to do with our new bedroom extension (a bit of storage and a little decorating of the hall where the window was). Our home is gradually becoming more as we would like it (less cluttered!!) and we are getting on well with our various projects.
- We are on the way to improved health and fitness, which can only do us good.
Wishing everyone a very good and successful 2010!
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By the way, it was a group of these who have been visiting our garden - we feel so lucky!
Redwing
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Sounds like a lovely New Year's. Lamb especially sounds yummy! Living on the Northern California coast, we had fresh crab. An informal meal by necessity, since everyone's eating with their hands! Shared it with some of our best friends.
ReplyDeleteRinda
You sound like you had a great time Lizzie. We are UNO card sharks here as well - we love it!
ReplyDeleteYou have some lovely things to look forward to this year Lizzie - and, isn't great to see our children grow and mature and pick up on some of the things we try so hard to instill in them? Makes us proud as well!
Oh, I forgot - we had prawns for our new year meal .... we have great big yummy ones here, as with Rinda - makes for an informal meal!
ReplyDeleteOoh, you lucky pair- eating sea-food in the sunshine! Still, roast lamb is some consolation for dull, cold days, when the sun doesn't rise til after 8am and sets by 4pm. The only problem with "comfort food" is that it's so easy to get fat!!
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