Christmas Highlights

Thought I would share a few of the highlights of this year's holiday:

1. I drank a lot of wine - not sure where it all went to, but we bought loads and I only have one bottle of red left!
2. We had a barbeque on Christmas Eve - it was great fun, the Turkey Burgers went down a treat!
3. The kids got us up at 4am! I thought this was supposed to get better as they got older, but clearly not.
4. On Christmas Day we just ate whatever we fancied. We cooked up a gammon (cooked in Coke, apples and Maple Syrup - fantastic!), made bread, cakes, home made sweets, etc. We love doing Christmas Day like this, far better than slaving over a huge meal that no one really wants by the time it is ready...
5. On another day we did a huge piece of pork - it was in the over for a ridiculous amount of time but it cooked to perfection, with the best crackling I have ever had.
6. In a drive to keep spending to a sensible level this year there were no big presents for Mrs RC and myself, just little things that would be appreciated. It was great because everything was carefully chosen and really fun to open. We also restricted spending on the kids a bit more this year, but they didn't seem to notice and loved everything that they got.. Again I think it was a matter of us choosing things with more care and consideration.
7. My dad managed another classic. He phoned up on the afternoon of New Year's Eve. He was running out of food, could I pop to the supermarket and restock for him. Great. We had worked things out so that there would be no need to enter into the insanity of food shopping on that day - I mean, most shops would be shut the next day so everyone would be out panic buying toilet rolls and stuff because civilization could well come to an end before the 2nd! So, once more into the breech, once more! It was utter madness! Cars were lined up down the road outside a totally packed car park as everyone and his dog tried to do that last minute shop. Thank God for bicycles! I don't know what happened while I was inside the store, but they had a Code 2 in the car park, which needed Police, Paramedics and an Ambulance! Still, my duties done, we had an nice evening seeing in the New Year, secure in the knowledge that my dad would not starve.
8. Then we finally had a decent fall of snow in our area, just in time for the return to school and work! Up until this time the snow seened to avoid a 15 mile radius around my town, all we got was a sort of sugar dusting! All around us there was mayhem - people at works parties getting showed in, even a store full of people had to spend the night in one place! Oh well, shouldn't really complain!

Anyway, there are some of my Christmas highlights!

Back soon!