Hello All!
I hope you are well! Belated Christmas blessings to you! I intended to post on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and then Boxing Day but I just never got around to it. (My Christmas eve post was a scheduled one from the previous day).
How were your Christmas days?
Mine were lovely.
Christmas eve began in a lazy way with some making of porridge (I've been conning CBC into eating porridge oats that had a Best Before date of 2017 by preparing the saucepan with milk and oats measured out so he just switches it on when he comes downstairs. That way, he has no thoughts about which oats are being used and we use them up! They taste absolutely fine but he's a bit squeamish about things like that.
After that, he talked about how we should get some presents for his sister and her children at which point, I went to my 'box' in the spare room and produced 2 beautiful picture books which I had purchased in Northumberland in the Summer from Cogito books and presented them to him. He asked if I had anything else and I produced a set of alphabet stamps and a lobster t-shirt. He then mentioned his sister and I went and fetched the pretty Joules vest top with bees on which I had bought her in Harrogate in August. Later, he said he should get his Head of department a present so I went and produced presents for her. He's such a brat though- he demanded tissue paper, eschewed the black tissue paper and I had to fetch white. Finally said Thank you after prompting. We then drove to his old housemate N, who was alone for Christmas because the new restrictions meant he couldn't return to his family in Wales (he lives alone) to drop off his Christmas present (organic Maple Syrup bottled by myself from the Zerowaste shop plus a large bag of Salt and Vinegar crisps in Compostable packaging. Did a drive by stopping to deliver it to him, then drove to his sister to deliver presents for her and her 2 toddler boys as well as picking up some Craft beers for her husband on the way. We stopped at the door step for 5 minutes, had a nice selfie with her eldest in the foreground and C and I in the background waving from the front garden and then drove to Southend to deliver presents to CBC's Head of Department who had dropped us off a lovely bag during our isolation. We had a lovely chat on the doorstep with her. It was so nice to see 3 separate people in that day after not really seeing anyone for 2 weeks! It was serendipitous that a very nice Thai restaurant which does 20% discount on picking up your order is just round the corner from her so we picked up some takeaway. Thai is my absolute favourite so it was a real Christmas treat.
Back home, we feasted and I watched Ocean's 8 on Netflix which I thoroughly enjoyed.
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Ok, bored of my chitchat? Here's my Christmas Eve, Eve outfit. I call it cosy sprout chic I began with the starry, stripy top (charity shopped brand new) and paired it with this green cardigan, added my Hannah Hitchman Sprout lover and Sprout hater pins and then added my Sprout earrings which Lara made for me by commission, a few years ago.
To add to the cosy feel, I added a charity-shopped black velvet skirt and leggings and my Ralph Lauren Petrol-coloured boots.
When we headed to the Coop for CBC's first trip out post-COVID, I added my charity-shopped Sheepskin Jacket and my Velvet hat. Everything was cosy.
Right, if you are bored of the Christmas recap, feel free to skip to the comments.
Christmas day, I awoke fairly earlyish. We got dressed and CBC wrapped my presents on one side of the bedroom whilst I studiously looked the other way whilst dressing. I am very good- I never peep in advance at presents- I like the anticipation of opening too much!
I dressed in my Christmas finery (I'll post that another day) and then we came downstairs, regretfully did the previous night's washing up, I then ended up hoovering (ON CHRISTMAS DAY!??!!) as the floor was a state and we ate scrambled eggs on bagels. We then watched Carols from Kings whilst eating breakfast and then CBC played the piano whilst I watched the Christmas morning church service from my old church.
We then opened presents from each other.
CBC had bought me some new winter cycling gloves (I knew he was getting them as I suggested them as I really needed some as my current ones have a hole in them and the grip has come off)- they are great as they are waterproof, warm and have some reflective bits on them.
The other surprise present was a pretty acrylic and wooden lemon necklace from Wolf and Moon, a shop I really like. He didn't know this, he chose them when we went to Leigh on Sea back in early December.
In return, I had bought him new Tifosi cycling glasses (he had shattered his a few weeks ago), a jar of his favourite honey, Fairtrade chocolate, an ultra-lightweight, down-filled gilet for walking (very pleased with this as it was Brand New with tags from Uniqlo but bought in a charity shop 2 weeks ago on my last day of freedom), a book about the Rwandan cycling team, a book about music and a Jellycats cuddly HB pencil which he had admired in Hexham at Half Term. He was amazed at all the things like the pencil and I told him that was because I ALWAYS buy things way in advance!
We then went for a walk by the river- it was a really nice walk but cold. Had a stupid row, entirely caused by me. He was saying that we should cook the sprouts with bacon but since he is a vegetarian/pescetarian I said no (since I think this is hypocritical of him. I say this because he occasionally berates me for eating meat. If he didn't berate me, I wouldn't object to any of his slips). It was very silly and then ended up making me feel bad and guilty about it for the rest of the day, despite my trying to be extra nice to make up for it.
Cooking our Christmas dinner was nice- it's the first time we've ever had Christmas just by ourselves and the first time we've cooked it without anyone else. It was very tasty even the ABSURDLY lumpy gravy which CBC caused by chucking waaay too much flour in the gravy I was trying to make. I hasten to add that I didn't ask him to do this.
We ate it, didn't eat too much and then had apple tart with custard for dessert. We had a chat with my sister on Whatsapp video and then watched some TV. We finally opened our other presents. My mum had been incredibly generous and bought us a huge bag of presents. They included 2 Doctor Who scarves for me, a hand-crocheted double-bed sized rainbow blanket, eco-products including soaps, shampoo bars, toothpaste powder, solid body cream, hand-crocheted cloths and a handmade hat and welly-socks. I also had another few lovely presents from 2 other people (and I remembered about one from someone lovely who might be reading this on Boxing day!).
Boxing Day was a very lazy day. It involved mainly watching TV and eating.
Today began with catching up with church with United church, Ferndown on all the services from Christmas Eve, Day and today whilst eating breakfast.
Then CBC came down and we made a vegetarian fry up (I have to say that Richmond's Plant based sausages are delicious! As is the Veggie bacon from the Milkman). We then watched TV and went out for a walk. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny walk and I saw something truly exciting in the woods which I have been looking for all year so I count it as a late Christmas present that I finally saw it! Can you guess what it is??
Hope you had a lovely Christmas so far!
xx
