Mostly a Success

We had a lovely Christmas.  It was a wee bit different but in no way any worse than usual, in fact, I'd almost say it was better.  I always feel under pressure on Christmas day to go for dinner to either mums or my brothers and as of the last few years, I have taken over my mums turn for dinner and to be honest I'm over it.  I don't mind having a couple of people for dinner, in fact I enjoy that but Christmas dinner in the past has been for 12 and I get really stressed about it and although its always been successful it wears me out mentally and I just don't really enjoy it now.  After our lovely lunch hubby and I didn't feel up to a big dinner so we just had some chicken thighs and Pringles on a plate on our lap watching a Christmas movie!  It was great.  I had bought a chicken for the two of us so we had that last night and just as I was about to cook it our son in law appeared at the door with a turkey crown for us.  He'd been to Tesco to get a couple of things and they were selling the turkeys off for a couple of pounds!  The crown had been £17 previously!  I cooked it with the chicken and its all sliced and in the freezer ready for lots of lovely meals!

Also, I admit to hating leaving the dog in by himself at night if we go out for dinner!  Yes, I know it's stupid.  The dog is fine although he stresses while we're out at night.  During the day he's fine, in fact if we sneak into the garden (ie. don't drive into the driveway) and peek in the window, there he is on his back, feet in the air, sound asleep, relaxed as you like.  During the evening when we come home he's panting and stressed and takes ages to calm down.  Partly this is due to us and our behaviour.   As a puppy we trained him to leave him for periods of time during the day.  We have a routine of giving him a couple of special treats in a tub when we leave him and as soon as he sees the tub he goes to bed and waits to get the treats (which he has to get out of the tub to keep him busy for a while!).  However it became very apparent we rarely go out at night.  I'm not hugely fond of going to restaurants for dinner and as neither of us drink alchohol, we don't go to the pub so through time we realised we rarely go anywhere at night that the dog can't join us.  However, there are a few times in the year when we join friends for a meal or whatever and we noticed the dog didn't like it one bit and that has persisted unfortunately.  We started out making more effort to leave him in the evening for short periods, however it was hard to keep that up when its not our normal behaviour so to this day I hate leaving him alone at night because I know he'll be stressed.  I know if you don't have a pet you will think I'm utterly mad.  I probably am utterly mad anyway, but pets become members of the family and in the same way I would hate to leave a child at home who got stressed and worried I hate to leave the dog.  Of course Covid hasn't helped this at all.  We're all staying in much more than before so I suspect more than just our dog will be stressed when the world goes back to any form of normality.

Anyway, enough of me and my neurotic tendencies!  We did indeed have a lovely Christmas.  My mum enjoyed her lunch with us and ate much more than I thought she would.   She was also very on the ball this year with Christmas presents.  Lets just say my mum is reknowned for getting everyone weird and not so wonderful gifts at Christmas!  However this year she's done amazingly well.  Being in lockdown has clearly focussed her mind a bit better.  My daughter loves her new pjs from her.  They are the weirdest pattern you've ever seen on pjs ( par for the course lol) however my daughter says they are the softest most comfy pjs ever!  I was gobsmacked when I opened mine.  I had been wanting to go to our local giftshop to buy another cross body bag but could never quite get round to it for one reason and another.  I already have one from there and its been perfect to use during Covid.  It just holds my mask, my hand sanitiser, my cards and my keys.  It's all I need and it's neat and it's pink.  I love it but my winter, warm jacket is bright yellow and although it doesn't bother me hugely, I've been thinking I should get a bag that maybe goes a bit better in the winter.  I literally haven't said a word of this thought to anyone, not hubby, not daughter and certainly not my mum.  So, what do you think my mum got me for Christmas?  A yellow, cross body bag from the same shop!  It's perfect and I'm still amazed!  My mum isn't usually that intuitive and she was very pleased with my reaction to it!  

We got my granddaughter a popcorn making machine for Christmas and much as she loves it, our daughter isn't as impressed.  She loves the popcorn alright, its the fact that the machine flings the popcorn all round the kitchen!  It has a big bowl thats supposed to catch it when it pops and it does catch most of it but there's quite a bit goes a bit further than the bowl!  My grand daughter loves it, it gave her the best laugh and the best popcorn so she's happy!

And last but not least we think the customs people stole the chocolate we sent to our son in Australia!  He had been talking about his gifts we sent and didn't mention the chocolate bars so I asked if he liked them and he said he didn't get them.  He was convinced his partner had hidden them from him but she swears she didn't and they both started hunting high and low in case they had been misplaced.  It was two big 200g bars wrapped together so I don't think they'd get tangled in the paper and get thrown out.  I said that customs must have opened the parcel but if they did they have to tell you but our son said he ripped off all the labels to make sure they didn't see from our customs label what was in the parcel and so there might have been one from the customs people.  It's the only thing that could have happened.  We know they are funny about letting food in.  We were told by a customs officer in Australia that chocolate is fine as long as it is sealed and its declared so I don't understand why it would be removed however there's no other option.  It's his birthday in March - so I might try again!!  Chocolate in Australia isn't nearly as nice as ours even though it says its Cadbury!

So Christmas has been mostly a success.  The only failure has been our other son who's not yet wished us a happy Christmas!  Have you heard the saying 'a daughter's a daughter for all of your life but a son is a son till he takes a wife' ?  Well in our eldest sons case this is the truth!  He's been busy with his partners family over Christmas and normally we'd have seen them on Christmas Eve for dinner and to hand over their presents but of course this year that didn't happen and I think he just forgot!  Charming!