A Merry Christmas

Well, a rather belated “Merry Christmas” to all Blog Friends and Readers!  I hope you all have had a lovely time, with whatever you most enjoy in the Holiday Season – family, friends, lovely Church services and sweet music, good food and company. 

 
We have had a quiet Christmas here; normally my sister, nephew and nieces come over on Christmas Day, after lunch, but this year my elder niece is expecting a baby and they decided to stay at home for their Christmas celebrations.  We were invited to go there, but my mother can’t cope with such a long journey and my mother-in-law was also here; so there were just five of us here.   We had a lovely time though and opened our presents together after breakfast.  

J. was very pleased with a Nintendo DSi game from Santa.  He would hardly have put it down since he opened it, except to have a shower, eat a meal or go to sleep, but now and again we persuade him to take a break! 
D. was happy with a couple of DVD’s and the usual pair of new slippers (sad I know, but he needed them!).  He also had a small stash of chocolates and a few other bits.

I am spoiled – I now have a lovely new jigsaw puzzle, from D, some pretty sewing stuff from Su; I now even own a pin-cushion!  My mum gave me a pretty necklace and a box of toffees from Thorntons.  J. gave me some printing plates for my little Letterpress, which I’ve been experimenting with this afternoon – I’m making “Thank You” cards! 
I also have a set of lovely tins, which my sister bought me; I asked for a large cake tin, with “Cake” written on it, but she bought me a set of three nesting tins, with a design of pink roses and old-fashioned writing. I don’t think they will ever make it into the kitchen – they’re too pretty – they are currently on the shelf in my studio, waiting to be pressed into service as craft storage!

All in all, I have been very lucky for nice pressies!  I hope you all had a few nice surprises too.

We had a surprise visit on Christmas Eve, just after lunch.  My sister turned up, with my niece Keri-Anne and little Elle, to deliver our Christmas presents.  We were pleased to see them, but Elle hadn’t been very well the day before though and was still rather spaced out; Keri-Anne was also a bit under the weather and my sister was still recovering from a rotten fluey cold.  Not sure why they came out on a cold, horrible day, all the way from Northampton… I was pleased to see them, but we’ve been taking lots of vit. C tablets, in an effort to avoid inheriting their various lurgies!  Keri-Anne spent Christmas Day on their sofa, feeling really ill, (which can’t have been helped by her 60 mile round-trip in the cold! ) I think she’s on the mend now though.

The nice thing about having our visitors, was seeing the little one play with our Christmas books, reading the Christmas Story with her mummy – and Spot’s Magical Christmas! She had a go with our Nativity Set,  setting up the Holy Family, the Angel, lambs and donkey, shepherds and wise men, camels and cows… It’s lovely to have a small person here again, playing with the little people in the Nativity Set – J. is 13 now and too old to play with it any more. 



Somehow Christmas is more special when there are little ones to share it with.

   
 

Later in the day, my Mum-in-Law arrived to spend Christmas with us.  She brought her budgie, Bailey, so we had a nice “friend” for the cat. We were all woken on Christmas Morning, at 7am, by MIL telling off the cat and bird for shouting at each other!  I thought it was supposed to be the cry of a newborn baby, not the squawk of a new-woken budgie!

J. gave his Nanna a lovely little gift:


This was from one of my favourite shops on Etsy – The Felt Menagerie, by Feltmeupdesigns.

And the garden birds weren’t forgotten either:


J. in the garden, in pj’s and boots, feeding the birds some breakfast!

All in all, it’s been a quiet, but very nice Christmas.  Mum-in-Law went home yesterday morning, so the afternoon was very quiet here, with just the three of us, relaxing.  

I popped over to my mum’s this morning, with her shopping and to check she was okay.  She hasn’t been too well, as she has had a few dizzy spells.  She ended up in the hospital on 23rd December, because she nearly fell down.  We’re still not sure if the problem is with her inner ear, or connected to her other problems – she has arthritis in her spine/kneck and osteoporosis. It could be caused by pressure on the blood/nerve supply from her kneck to her head.  We’ll be seeing her doctor in the next few days, to see what he thinks.  Meanwhile, she has some tablets and is coping okay.

So, we’re back to “normal” really! Off to the shops tomorrow, so J. can spend some pocket money and play Warhammer games at the shop.  Taking Mum to the nurse on Thursday.  But on Friday we’ll be having a lovely roast-beef dinner, for New Year’s Eve and if everyone is well, we’re off to my niece’s house on New Year’s Day, for a nice family lunch.

Christmas is not over yet… So Merry Christmas to All!