Christmas is coming

We made our Christmas Cake today: it’s baking at the moment, the smell is intoxicating. Maybe that is something to do with the amount of Armagnac on the fruit.

After we saw what Sainsbury were charging for turkeys we went to the local award winning butcher (Uptons of Bassett) yesterday and ordered fresh free range prepared turkey and home cured gammon. The weather has been too warm for it to seem very Christmassy though.

In other news our central heating has now been brought into the 21^st Century with a modern boiler, some new radiators and working thermostatic valves all round the house. The new boiler is wall mounted in the utility room so we’ve been able to put the kitchen bin in the old boiler cupboard. Many of the new radiators are smaller than before, or old radiators have been removed leaving holes in the walls and missing bits of paint and paper.

This picture is the area in our bedroom where the fitter brought the pipes up through the floor to go through the attic and down into the airing cupboard. Typically the walls were not straight so he had to put a bend in the pipes. We had to move the power sockets to make room for the pipes too. This is all repaired now, mostly hidden by a dresser.

The last week

Boxing Day (26th December) was a quiet one, getting ready for the kids arriving on 27th.

Early morning on 27th December we went to Heathrow. I'd reserved a car at Alamo rentals. Maria dropped me off and then waited for me. As I drove out she followed me, but she was delayed at the exit barrier and a bus joined the queue behind me. As I left the car lot I saw Maria drive off towards Terminal 5, when we needed Terminal 3. I waited for 15 minutes and then went off to the airport. She returned my call as I got to the car park - she was now in the terminal arrival hall.

I got there 10 minutes later and met the kids. No sign of Maria though! They had been waiting 10 minutes. Beth went off and had her paged but then we spotted her.

We got home at about 10 am, had breakfast and then started on "Christmas dinner" preparation. We finished eating at about 4 pm after sitting down at 3.30 pm. We had desert later on though!

On 28th December Daughter No 1 and Son No 1 went off to the football with Grandad. Arsenal won (against Portsmouth). But then Grandad didn't turn up at the kebab shop where they had arranged to meet. They waited 20 minutes and then rang a family friend who they knew was at the match and put him on standby, then they rang me, then they rang Grandad's house in case he contacted his son. They then went to meet the family friend in the pub. Grandad turned up an hour later. He'd been turned back by the police and sent the wrong way, got lost and eventually went backwards and forwards looking for them before thinking to try the pub. He hadn't thought to call anyone - and he'd left his mobile at home too! They got home at 7 pm

29th December Grandad, his son Steven and daughter in law Cheri and their daughter Rebecca came for a cup of tea/coffee and to exchange gifts. After that we went to Guildford shopping (to spend gift vouchers the girls had been given). No 1 son and I went off to find a barber as he hasn't had a hair cut since we had it done on 29th August. We met the girls in Starbucks - here Caroline was able to get us staff discount off the drinks. Maria wasn't answering her phone though. She eventually called at 5 pm - her coffee was nearly cold by then and the girls had gone off shopping again. Back home Caroline and Maria watched "Mamma Mia" on DVD - I sat through it too. It was quite fun, bad plot and worse singing but if you ignore that its a bit like The Rocky Horror Show. Maria says the singing is supposed to be bad to show how it doesn't matter if you can't sing! Tom had gone over the road to see his friends and Beth went too - she stayed to watch "Superman Returns" with them!

Christmas Day and recap of last night's TV

The Carol Service and Midnight Mass ended at 1 am, and we got home by 2 am.

I opened a bottle of port and we had some cheese. The cork broke on the port, so I had a few minutes fun straining the port through paper towels. There was loads of sediment too, so I took the opportunity to clear that too.

Got woken up at 9 am by the b&%^$%^g cat scratching on the door.

Yesterday before we went down to Portsmouth we watched a re-run of Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas. This was shown last year but we missed it, this was a re-run opn UKTV Food. He made Christmas themed food: Gold Frankincense and Myrrh was a bouillon block covered in gold leaf, with Frankincense tea to disolve it to make the soup and a spoon whittled out of a piece of Myrrh. He made an apple sorbet that wouldn't melt when he set fire to it. For the main course he made Goose with Chestnuts, with scents of leather, wood smoke and chestnuts roasting. He'd fed the geese on pine tree extract. Then he finished with reindeer milk ice cream on a brioche slice with mincemeat and pancetta. The brioche was dipped in egg before being fried. So it looked like scrambled egg on toast with bacon. He fed the food to a group of "celebrities". Totally amazing stuff.

Midnight Mass

Down to Portsmouth tonight for carols and midnight Mass.

Happy Christmas!