Well, that was that!
A lot of blogs do the whole retrospective sweep around Xmas – I prefer to do that on New Year. So, I will, in this post, just write about what happened today: Christmas Day 2016.
Things got off to an excited start. Like a cotton headed ninnymuggins, I woke up at 03:30 and wanted presents. I tried, valiantly, to raise my wife from slumber. I did the gentlemanly thing and wait until 4am to do this. We exchanged gifts. Kathryn received a print by noted local artist, Robbie Burns. This was the winter scene called âDrawn to the Lightsâ that compliments the autumnal scene that I purchased for Kathryn to mark our fifth wedding anniversary – also by Robbie Burns. I also got Kathryn the dress below and a couple (three) albums.
The dress looked stunning on Kathryn – it was as if it was made to specification solely for my wife. Kathryn bought me some amazing presents (a Sun Ra CD among them).
I then had four hours wait whilst Kathryn slept the sleep of the righteous – all I did was look at wrapped presents and feel useless. Thankfully, one of the gifts that Kathryn gave me was an espresso porcelain set and ground coffee – this set me up nicely in time to wake her up at eight thirty and tell her that âNow is the time for presents.â
Mum and Dad kindly gave me a voucher for a music store I frequent (Bleep) and my sister bought me a telescope – it looks ace as it has the added tech benefit of being able to sync with the SkyView app on my phone and point towards the stars labeling them as you go along; so that I am not wildly pointing my new telescope at airplanes.
We spent the morning of Christmas Day in our flat as the world busied itself for a day of gluttony. The chosen destination for our feasting was Kathrynâs parentâs in Harrogate. Kathrynâs mum is an accomplished cook and treated us royally. The feasting led to lethargy and I had to tag out after the third round of seconds was called up.
They even had Xmas pudding in for me and Kathryn – so the story told to me today goes, the humble Christmas pudding fell out of favour in Kathryn HQ to be replaced by a boozy trifle. Kathryn had not eaten Xmas pudding until she spent her first Xmas with me at Home Farm – she is now hooked on the stuff. We were treated great by Kathrynâs parents and it was great to spend time with them. They had got a lot of beer in for the day, but, after the feasting, I was a little bit full to start a one-man session.
The afternoon led to an intense game of scrabble – Katâs dad cheated/won* and I came third – still it is the taking part that counts ⊠until I win a game and then it is the winning that matters.
I managed to phone Home Farm and have a chat with siblings and parents – they seemed to have weathered the Xmas storm. Storm Mum was battering around the kitchen of Home Farm annoying the low pressure of Dad and generally clucking – but she was pleased that her Grand daughter was spending the majority of her first Christmas at the family HQ.
Back at Kathrynâs parent we slipped into a diabetic coma after over indulgence and woke up to see that Len Goodman was retiring from Strictly Come Dancing. Power snooze accomplished, we hot footed it back to our flat and slobbed in our Pyjamas. Yes, I have a beer in hand and, yes, I am wearing my pyjamas – well, itâs Christmas!
So, I would like to wish you the very best of days and I hope that all of your Christmas wishes have been fulfilled. So, from Kathryn & Andy B* (plus Ted the Goldfish) – have a very merry Christmas!
- delete as appropriate
