Boxing Day

Morning!  Goodness, I'm weary this morning.  I stayed up really late in the hopes of  sleeping in this morning (and also to start catching up on recorded telly - and a bit more Christmas Campari might have had something to do with it too) but not a chance.  Wide awake just before five.  Not to worry, I am pretty sure I will have a nice snooze this morning and, apart from a bit of reorganising of gifts left behind by Beth and Alex for collection today, everywhere is in a reasonable state and only needs superficial tidying which will take about five minutes.

Thank goodness for dishwashers!

It was a lovely day.  Very busy, especially in the morning, but it stopped me thinking too much which was good.
The Christmas pork, kindly provided by Dave and Anna with very strict instructions about How To Cook It, was absolutely delicious and, for the first time in my life, the crackling was proper crackled.  Who doesn't love a but of pork crackling?  I thought belly pork would be very fatty but it wasn't, it was lovely, melt in the mouth, falling off the ribs stuff.  Definitely having that again at some point.

This is what the table looked like before the hoardes descended!!

A Christmas Day tradition is that Beth and Dave (usually Beth) does something with the wooden nativity set.  For example, one year she substituted a jelly baby for the baby Jesus and it was well into the afternoon before I noticed.
This year, taking inspiration from the current situation, the Holy Family and visitors found their movements very much controlled by some restrictions.

Apologies for the lack of focus . . .

The shepherds.

The wise men.

In the stable.

And on the back of each of the above.


I laughed myself silly over them!

I loved my gifts.  I won't go through them but just focus on this, from Alex.  He knows I love my festive china so gave me a lovely tin, two mugs and two coasters, all in the Spode Christmas Tree design.
What I already had was older designs and don't have the lovely border.
I'm enjoying my first coffee in one of the mugs right now!

I swear that, one of these years, I will shell out a disgracefully large amount on a dinner set of this design (or maybe the Portmerion Holly and Ivy), I love them so much.
Then I will HAVE to have family round very often to get some use from it, won't I?

Today is the First Day of Christmas and my gift from me to me is sitting on my reclining chair.  It's the only one I specifically chose for this day - the others are random so will be a bit more of a surprise.  Today's is the new Richard Osman book.  I've heard mixed reviews so I'll see what I think.

I chose this because I thought I was going to be on my own and something new to read felt very appealing.  However, Beth, Alec and Dave are all coming over again mid afternoon for the Christmas buffet none of us had room for yesterday evening, contenting ourselves with cheeseboard and mince pies.
Really looking forward to it.

So, that's my Christmas.  It was bitter sweet, I can't say I was happy all day, I wasn't, but it was joyful, all the same, despite the two big gaps that used to be filled by Mum and Dad.   I am glad they were missed - it wouldn't have been right not to miss them.

Did you have a lovely day?  I hope your gifts were just what you wanted (even if you didn't realise that until you opened them), your food was absolutely delicious and you felt content and satisfied.  We all spend these times in different ways, don't we, but it's all good (or should be).

Happy Boxing Day to us all  xxx