I remember the bit in When Harry Met Sally when Sally is crying down the phone to Harry and then says ‘and I’m going to be 40…’ Harry asks ‘When?’ aghast. Sally carries on sobbing ‘someday….’
I have 10 days left. I’m going to be 40 someday.
Maybe I am getting old. For my birthday I would like a washing machine and a bath…. 😉
Christmas Eve was lovely. The kids both made stockings. Davies really wanted to do it all himself – cut out the fabric, stitch it, design and glue on decorations. Scarlett is actually quite a good sewer but far lazier and if she could have handed it all over for me to do she would have done so. Except I was up for some sewing myself so was busy turning an old pair of jeans into a shoulder bag for myself.
I semi rescued the Christmas cake, then decided only we would ever see if and it would still taste lovely even if the icing was dragging the marzipan down off the sides. So I stopped and moved to eating it instead 🙂
I can’t remember much more about the day, we watched some festive stuff but were all a bit wired really from anticipation of Christmas and fear that something might still happen to stop us staying in the static.
At 430 we headed down to the shop for mince pies and mulled wine. There was quite a gathering down there and it was a lovely hour or so all gathered in the shop chatting, sipping mulled wine, bantering and exchanging festive cheer. It is the sense of community here and the being part of something like this which holds us so tight and makes us want to fight for what must often seem to the outside world like a mental dream and a test of sheer bloodymindedness that is keeping us here. It isn’t – we simply know that the good bits are so good we would never hope to find anything like this again.
We walked home, very laden down with festive food and drink – tax credits paid on Christmas Eve meant that we were able to fully indulge, along with cashing in our Christmas Club funds that we’d been saving all year. Brandy, whisky, wine, beer and a bottle of fizz, along with treats like Baileys extra thick double cream to load onto mince pies, salmon, cheeses and things like Terrys chocolate oranges for stockings.
Back at home I did the final wrapping up while Ady got the curry on – we always had a Christmas Eve takeaway back on the mainland, ever since our first Christmas together – clearly not an option here so a homemade curry has to suffice. Maybe next year we’ll plan to cook extra in advance and freeze it so it is more like a takeaway!
While at the shop we had learnt that the internet had been struck by lightning earlier in the day and was out of order. Word was that it would be out until Boxing Day at the earliest, if fixable on Rum by venturing up Hebnet Hill, longer if it was something requiring a part to be sent up. This filled us rather with dismay – both as we knew we had people who were waiting for updates on our safety on facebook, friend feed, blog and by email. And because we had planned lots of iplayer viewing for our slice of Christmas TV pretending to still be normal – Doctor Who, Open All Hours, Miranda!
The kids went to bed lateish and then pretended to be asleep at about midnight so we were able to load up under the tree and in stockings. I think we were in bed by 1am. It was eerily quiet and felt as though we were all holding our breath waiting.
Davies and Scarlett woke about 715am and opened their stockings in Davies’ room. Ady got up and put the kettle on and got the fire lit and I followed about 15 minutes later. Presents were more reserved this year but they still had about 15 gifts each under the tree, mostly things they had specifically asked for and a few surprises. Davies had 4 DS games, some books, some lego, some pencils, a laser pen. I had also got him a Spy Watch with secret video camera and microphone, some clothes and more books. Scarlett had Playmobile, clothes, DS games, books and I had made her a cuddly pig and we got her an MP4 player with a load of her photos that used to be on a mains plug in digital photoframe that she loved and lots of her favourite music and a tiny, tiny opinel knife that she saw back in LLangollen when we were WWOOFing and has talked about ever since. Everyone had Christmas jumpers 🙂
Ady got the fullbox set of The Good Life on dvd, a penknife, chocolate, biscuits. I got books, a new headtorch, a new rechargable reading light and some of the very best chocolates that no one else likes (my most favourite sort!) Scarlett gave me my favourite of her candles and Davies had made me the most fantastic book all about me going on Popmaster – fully illustrated with a fill in the blanks popmaster question bit at the back ending with Ken Bruce awarding me with a signed autograph, which is enclosed in the back of the book and is a genuine Ken Bruce autograph. I LOVE it ! 🙂
Presents all exchanged we listened to Junior Choice on the radio, opened the fizz for Bucks Fizz and ate cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven. Yum.
Ady fed the animals and the kids got stuck into their various things. It was a very chilled morning. We managed to get signal around midday and rang my parents to speak to everyone there – Mum, Dad, Kat, Frazer and Robin. It was nice to hear them all happy and together and meant I was able to feel pleased to be not there without feeling guilty! 😉
At 2pm we were all ready for some fresh air and exercise so walked down to the shop for a glass of fizz as Jinty opened for a couple of hours. It was very festive feeling in there and Bonnie was allowed off the lead and behaved really well, playing with Jock and striking the right balance of friendly but not annoying to everyone at the shop.
Back home again almost at dinner time. We had a modest sized but very delicious Christmas dinner and watched The Good Life Christmas special which felt entirely appropriate.
The rest of the day was equally low key, music, some games, lots of chocolate and drink and nice nibbles. Lots of kids on DSs. We all went to bed around 11pm, knackered.
Boxing Day we had a boat! The kids slept in while Ady and I went to meet it, then realised it was running to a different timetable – d’oh! So we came home again, via collecting a car full of firewood to at least justify the journey. We faffed with the washing machine a bit and have now deduced it will need more water pressure than our water butt offers. We have a plan to test this theory this weekend, fingers crossed.
Back to the boat where petrol came off at last – hurrah! A bit of a festive catch up with various people at the boat and then home for late lunch. The internet came back – woohoo! Lots of packing stuff up and carting it down the hill to go to the castle where we had been invited for Boxing Day games, snacks and sleepover fun.
It was us, Mel & Em and Vikki. We had a really nice afternoon / evening playing low brow games like Bird Bingo, Mexican Train Dominos, Trivial Pursuit, Charades. Davies and Ady played lots of X box, Scarlett and Emily did loads of crafting stuff. Lots of nice food, Bonnie was really well behaved and just wandered about and hung out under the table. A real highlight was skyping with Mel’s family who have a Boxing day tradition of indoor fireworks so we joined them virtually for that. It was utterly hilarious, most definitely made all the funnier for Mel’s clear utter cringing mortification at her family. Loved it! 🙂
We all went off to bed about midnight – the kids slept in one room, Ady and I in another but in twin beds. I had a poor nights sleep, first too cold, then woke all tense and clenched where I was cold, then felt a bit ill so sat in the loo for a while, then back to bed only to be woken by Bonnie about an hour later wimpering. I woke Ady to deal with that as I knew she probably needed to go out for a wee and I had no contact lenses in so didn;t fancy blundering around various levels of the castle to get out. I still had to lay awake with the light on to check he came back a few minutes later and had not been locked out though. I finally got to sleep just before dawn I think.
Mel was already at work when we all got up so we breakfasted with Emily and then headed off. The kids popped along to the yurt to light a fire and we caught up with Ali in the village then all came home to fed animals.
Ady had a frustrating day trying and failing to get the wind turbine up – the cable which runs up the inside of the pole had fallen down inside and despite repeated best efforts could not be coaxed up again. He is planning to deal with it tomorrow morning while I am at work. I burned all the rubbish from Christmas deliveries, got the fire going and bought in more wood and assisted and encouraged in phase one of post Christmas tidy up. We may have guests next week so room needed to be made in bedrooms and I have been feeling generally oppressed by the level of stuff closing in on us. I do love Christmas decorations but after three weeks I am ready to declutter again and have our already very space limited static feeling a bit roomier once more.
Dinner was leftovers. We have ordered my birthday present (reconditioned camera), caught up a bit online and I really need to go to bed as I have work in the morning!