Sat 21st Dec. Shortest Day, Longest Night.

We woke up early (5am) - Douglas was like a little kid desperate to get his mits onto his present - so desperate was he, that he suggested opening a particularly fragrant one the night before.. cause it might just have some bath goodies in it!! (I told him off, and made him wait lol)

We sat in bed and opened pressies.. a really nice scarf each from Ds dad and step mum, and some Thorntons choccies (as yet untouched!!) An Amazon voucher and some lovely LUSH soap from DMIL..(Douglas will be rushing onto the Internet with great joy tomorrow, I suspect.. looking for some books to buy with the voucher) ..

We got a huuuge box with some more glorious LUSH stuff in.. its great.. instead of using polystyrene "worms" as packaging, they use popcorn, which can be popped straight into the compost bin!! The mega LUSH box was from dear Dreaded Sis in Law!! Thank youuu!

D's lovely Auntie and partner I presume to me you would be DAIL ;-) - Dreaded Auntie in Law? got us a lovely pale ceramic wind chime with moons and stars on. I think we might hang it in our downstairs loo, so when the back door opens the wind will make it jingle :-) .. loo is right near back door. as if you wanted to know that!!

Finally we got a lovely M&S Hamper from DBIL (Ds brother) which we will enjoy over the year to come. We already had some of the sweet wine out of it as part of a syllabub D made for our meal.. mmmmm!

After we had done pressies, we got up and started to prep all the veg for later, as we had invited Ds Dagda friend Dangerous, his partner Liz and her daughter Louise round for a late lunch/early tea.

We prepared potatoes and parsnip for roasting, carrots for boiling, red cabbage to cook with onions, apples and balsamic vinegar, I had already cooked my nut roast and made a cheese sauce to go with it, so D prepared some pork for the meat eaters.

At about 9.30am, we were tired again.. so went back to bed, and went out like a light!! It wasn't until 11am that my mum phoned and it woke us up.

I went out almost immediately to do a small tesco shop and a few more techy things for the parents, and D washed up and laid the table.. it looked a treat.. a paper Xmas tablecloth.. glasses.. settings.. napkins.. the works!!

Our friends got to us at about 4pm, and we were almost ready to eat. We had a sumptuous feast, ending with Syllabub, and Xmas pudding with brandy flamed over the top, brandy butter and or cream (oh how my arteries shriek!!) I didn't even mention the sparkling Chardonnay, the lovely red and nice cold white wine we had with it!

After the meal, we had a really lovely few hours chilling, chatting, and thoroughly enjoying each others company.

D is now watching some awful film and I have come up here to be peaceful and update the blog. I've done most of the washing up.. the rest of it is in soak and can wait until tomorrow.

We will be at my little brothers Xmas day, so that will be quite a different celebration.. probably more hectic with three little ones rushing round, but lovely to join in with their Christmas :-)