Monday 5 January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Well, 2009 is here - I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great 2009. (I will be catching up up blogs ASAP!).

We had a really good Christmas.

Our Christmas Eve barbeque was great - I did turkey breasts and pepper steak which went down really well. We also had a sack of small presents that were looked after by Santa Pooh in his "sleigh" (see my next post for a full explanation of this) which were given out while I cooked. This really added to the event, as did a bottle of really good red wine - sadly I am the only one who likes it so I had to take care of it all by myself...

Christmas Day was also really good - the kids loved their presents. The boys spent the rest of the holiday playing Gears of War 1 and 2 and Halo 3 on their new X-Box 360 while my daughter played around with her new make up, clothes, MP3/MP4 player (which I had taken the liberty of pre-loading a load of great stuff onto), etc.

We also went to dinner with some friends and ended up playing Guitar Hero World Tour, complete with guitar, mic and drum kit. I know I have said some things about this in the past, but we actually had a blast playing it, and are now considering getting it ourselves. Or perhaps Rock Band? I will have to check them both out before taking the dive - any comments on this would be most welcome!

New Years Eve was spent playing a game that we have just discovered - Chinese Checkers. We all love it, especially Mrs RC who gets really competitive with things like this. I expect that someone will now tell me that you can play it on Facebook! Please don't ! I might just have to revive my account if you do!

Finally, at the weekend, we played host to the people we had visited a few days before, doing a load of Mexican food (including a great chili that we kept going in the slow cooker) and then played Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Mariocart until some awful hour. Great fun, though.

So now it is back to work - and we finally had snow last night - a whole inch! Yes, we get it tough here, you know! It was grewat, though, because even a tiny amount like that stops lots of people driving, and those that do tend to go very slowly! YAY!

Back soon with my answers to The Princess's Questions!

12 comments:

terri said...

Welcome back! I missed you!

You're Christmas and vacation sound wonderful. Glad to hear everyone was happy and you had so much fun. Gosh, I'm sorry you had to finish that wine all by yourself though. Poor guy!

I hope 2009 is good to you and yours!

Teresa said...

Happy 2009 to you my friend!!

Your Christmas sounds awesome! We ended up getting Guitar Hero too...Chuck is LOVING it. I mean really getting addicted. I could not be happier about it b/c that man needs some sort of hobby other than work even if it is a video game (never thought I'd utter those words!) but anything to give his mind a break from his crazy job is good for me!

Glad you're back!!

kenady said...

Sounds like a wonderful holiday was had by all!

Missed you and am glad you are back:)

mr zig said...

Welcome Back! Sounds like you had a GREAT Christmas!

James said...

Hi John glad you had a good time. Me playing catch up too.

@ Teresa what's with your hair! Nice hairdo

Rock Chef said...

Terri - Missed you too! Dealing with the wine was a tough job, but I managed it!

Teresa - You got Chuck Guitar Hero! Excellent! I don't know how people get by without a good stress relief mechanism - if he enjoys that, it is great news! Good to be back, thanks!

Kenady - It was great, thanks! Missed you too!

Zig - Thanks!

James - Thanks. And yes, Teresa's new do is great isn't it? I was wondering when she would post pics of it.

m said...

I am glad you had a nice holiday. Happy New Year!

Also, yes, it is super sad that you had to drink an entire bottle of good wine all by yourself. :-)

Kate said...

Chili is Mexican food over there? lol - you Brits crack me up.

Sounds lie kChristmas was a success. Question - is a "Barbecue" like it is here in the states / outdoor grill, BBQ flavor and all or does it take on another meaning over there?

Don't even tell me you have a FB account? I admit; I'm addicted to Facebook!

Guritar Hero is fun - Tony and I would always battle on that. Never had RockBand b/c there's this weird ticking that the drumsticks make and it's really annoying to hear all that click-clack over the actual music. Singstar is fun (kinds like karaoke) - do they have that by you?

Welcome to 2009!

Ali said...

Missed you John! Glad you're back.

And your Christmas and New Years sounded fantastic! Glad the kidlets enjoyed their new treasures.

If I'd have been there I would have helped choke back that bottle of red - all in the name of friendship of course ;)

Kiki said...

Sp glad that you are back...you have been missed, but I'm sure that you had a wonderful time!!! I wish I had been there for the BBQ...it sounds yummy!!!

Only the best to you and your family in 2009, I know its going to be great!!!

Rock Chef said...

Mindy - Thanks - I am always willing to sacrifice myself for the common good.

Kate - Chili is generally thought of as Mexican, or sometimes "Tex-Mex", which is probably even worse. Barbecue/barbeque/BBQ is copied from you - outdoor grilling over charcoal. The friends that we did Guitar Hero with have got Singstar and love it. Thanks for the comment on Rockband - well worth taking into consideration. And I don't have an ACTIVE FB account...

Ali - Missed you too. You would have helped me with the wine? Hm, I would have had to open another one then! Would you have helped me with that one too?

Kiki - Missed you too. The BBQ was great - the turkey was the best! No more roasting for us!

Ali said...

I would have drank as much as possible to help you out - that's what friends are for ;)