Stuffed.

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By my reckoning it’s five years since I last wrote a blog post on Christmas Day, and I think it is fair to say that today has been the highlight of the week.

Nicky and I were awake around 5.30 this morning and started with the life-giving pot of tea, which was quite quickly followed by a second pot of tea and some present opening. Nicky hadn’t had much sleep with having been to midnight mass and then doing some more present wrapping and tidying up before coming to bed, but we managed to open a brilliant selection of gifts all the same.

Breakfast was a bit of departure from the usual as I tried to recreate the one we had on Nicky’s birthday at the Woodside Café. I served cheese with onion marmalade on buckwheat toast with some really nice thin and spicy pork sausages which Nicky had given me for Christmas. It wasn’t quite the same but enjoyable none the less. We then got on with our final preparations for the desserts we were taking to Clem and Pats, made more phone calls and had a lovely chat with Dawn, our landlady. We were a little late leaving and were delayed on the motorway but that meat that we had to wait less time than everybody else to tuck into first course. This was followed by Secret Santa and desserts. The weather wasn’t as good as it could have been so after having first course on the deck, the rest of the afternoon was inside. Both Phil and Anna were home from the UK for Christmas and it was good to see and chat with everybody.

Stuffed, hugged and feeling very content, we finally left Clem at Pats just after five and went for a walk and then swim at Red Beach. By 7 it was getting cooler so we headed home for another pot of tea, a lite bite, and watched “The Queen at 90”. A really good day.

The rest of the week has been very busy at work for Nicky, with the library being manic at times. Her sleeping pattern has got so disrupted she felt very nauseous and dizzy on Friday morning so didn’t go into work.

I have had some work, and done the usual laundry and shopping. We have had dinner on the Rattigan three times this week which has been very pleasant, and lingered on Wednesday as the evening of the longest day was warm and still.

The wind got up on Friday which was a bit of a hassle for my “works” Christmas “do”, but I wasn’t alone skinny dipping this year and around a dozen joined in with fish and chips by the beach at St. Heliers. The “rump” of the gathering retired to a café for coffee before heading off in our different directions. An enjoyable day inspite of the draft.

Nicky spent some of yesterday shopping, and the rest wrapping presents. I did some laundry and the ironing (still windy so the washing dried quickly even though we had the odd shower), and Dawn came round for a cup of tea and presents exchange. After tea Nicky wrapped accompanied by the films Arthur Christmas and Pretty Woman on the tellybox. As she went off to midnight mass, I went off to bed, which is where I am heading now.

To close here are a few pictures, and we both hope all of our lovely readership have (or had) a very Happy Christmas.










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