Tis a season to be jolly (not) when you still have the stinking post nasal drip from your last cold.

It's 3:00am and I am all awake. I was awaken by my cough trying to get rid of this little piece of hostile mucus stuck at the back of my throat. I almost choked at one point and got up a few times to say "hello" to the sink.

I am not going to bore you or myself with much detail but concentrate on the nice things of the season.

Well, the weather's turned mild once again (after weeks of between 2-3 degrees Celsius and occasional minus degree to 13 degrees last night). I don't know how accurate it was but I have this fancy gadget on my new Microsoft vista O/S giving me real time local temperatures.
How cool is that? (OK maybe not so if you already have something like that on yours for ages but it's something quite new to me).

It's nice, not too cold and not too warm. My little Alex is sleeping nicely while I update my blog.

Christmas Day (25 December)

Jem's working and I took Alex to his grandparents to spend Christmas afternoon together.

"Nana" that's what Alex calls his grandmother made a simple turkey meal for three -we had our proper Christmas celebration two weeks ago because my sister in law Sue is going to Tenerife for Christmas. (This is the only time of the year where she gets a breather as her work has been hectic for the past few years. She co-owned a catering employment agency with her business partner whose semi-retired and lives in Spain.)

Watched some Television together, Alex fell asleep on my lap and I had a hard time trying to breathe with a little boy laying against my chest. We left soon after as it got dark and rather wet.

Jeremy walked in the door looking tired after a twelve hour shift with only three staff working in his department. (The airport had been a "nightmare" heaving with holiday makers trying to get out of the country. The airlines are trying to get as many people in as possible as there were some flights cancelled a few days ago, due to the fog.)

I let him chill at the couch with a glass of brandy coke. Went to bed knackered.

Boxing Day (26 December) - 2nd day of Christmas

We had my friend Amelia, my cousin June and their family over for Christmas lunch. Never been so tired as I was cooking for six adults and three children. Two chickens with stuffing, 5kg of Gammon with pineapple, Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and bacon, sausage with bacon, broccoli, roast parsnip and roast potatoes. Oh oh oh .... not to mention Gravyyyyy (I love gravy). You guessed it, lots of leftovers.

Looking at those leftovers gave me a headache but the problem was solved immediately when we had such great time playing monopoly that it soon turned to dinner time. I cooked "Chow Mien" with the leftover chicken, sausages and gammon.

Our guests left at 10:30pm. It was tiring but we had great fun. Jeremy's been great - I was yacking (all of us yacking at the same time) all night with the girls while the men watched Tom Hank's Terminal on tv drinking wine and beer. The children played with Alex's many toys and we managed to off load some of his new toys to Anson and Brenda as we know he won't be playing with them.

Alex was really happy with so many people around. He refused his lunch and dinner but snacked on occasional Pringles, cakes and biscuits. What the heck - tis a season to be jolly!

(27 December) - 3rd day of Christmas

Went out to Dfs and Land of Leather to see what the big hoo hars about. NO Big Deal! They only put out what they want you to buy in the so called "massive landslide deal". We knew better as the set that I laid eyes on wasn't there but all the old "Al Cheapo" ones. Massively disappointed but hey ...... everyone else is happy parting with their cash ..... if only they knew!

I was told by a friend that his brother worked in the furniture industry - here's the trade secret ... (well secret no longer): They raise the prices up in October/November time - six weeks prior to Sale season (the law says products must be sold at a higher price for at least six weeks before they can put a product on Sale) They are well prepared not to sell anything during those periods and then the "big kill" in December and January.

We went around quite a bit to look for new settee in November - the staff were just not interested to entertain us. We decided to wait and see if what we liked will be on sale in December. Looks like, we have to hang on to our old couch for a little longer.