Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope your Christmas Day has been a good one.

Mine started early, as usual.  The two cats and Toby are used to an early start and if I sleep in beyond 5.15am they seem to think I need a morning call...thanks guys.

By 8am two of our grandchildren had come across the garden, full of tales of what Father Christmas had brought for them, and checking around to see whether he had managed to squeeze down our chimney, too.     We had a wonderful, crazy, hour or so with them.

Most unusually, the morning service was being held in the small church of the neighbouring village.  My daughter, grandson and I decided to walk through the fields to church.   As we cut through the farm and along the track to the church, the bells started to ring, so we picked up our pace and arrived with a few minutes to spare. 

The sun had been shining, the ground was squelchy, but not as muddy as it has been.   It almost felt as though there was some sort of slippage of time and we could have been villagers from hundreds of years ago, following the track and scurrying to the sound of the bells...apart from the fact that we had high tech Wellington Boots on, of course!

The vicar has a very young son of his own, so he kept the service short and sweet.   Plenty of carols, lustily sung, lots of greetings were exchanged with friends and strangers, mince pies and cups of coffee handed round.   The church was bedecked with freshly cut holly and lots of candles, there was a beautiful and very old wooden crib set on one windowsill.   The whole church felt warm and welcoming, despite the fact that we all had dragons breath coming out of our mouths, due to the cold!

Son No 2 and MingMing arrived shortly after we got home.   The grandchildren and their parents went back to their house - we always leave the rest of the day clear for them to spend time with their other grandparents, it seems only fair as we are lucky enough to see them every day.

Then I got stuck into some serious cooking.    I may not eat meat, but I make a supreme effort for Christmas, an enormous turkey and a giant ham, that should keep them all quiet for a while!   The animals were quite chuffed, too.

Crackers, silly jokes, enough to eat and drink without being silly.   We listened to the Queen's Speech, natch, then we settled down to play "Double Nines" Dominoes, which is the same as regular dominoes, except that you have more tiles of course.   It makes it a bit more challenging.   What began as one gentle game ended up becoming highly competitive.    I shall say no more.   Good game.

So that was our day. 

I hope your day has been a good one, however you spent it.

Belated Christmas Greetings to one and all!
x

ps No time to proof read this, so here it is, warts and all.