Christmas Eve – Ady did some outside stuff in the morning, can’t remember what but it took longer than he expected. He came in and we were getting stuck into making Christmas crackers when Faye and then Dave turned up for a cup of tea, which rather disrupted that. We finished them after they had gone though. Scarlett was suffering with her cold so the kids didn’t come down to the shop but were happy for Ady and I to go, so we left them with the genny on doing online stuff and headed down for a few drinks. Ady did Whisky Club (all interested parties put a fiver in and club together for a bottle of whisky to share, they rate it out of five stars and write comments in the official whisky club book. It’s great fun. I don’t join in with the tasting because I get a bit nasty on whisky but I do bully everyone into writing in the book which is always worth it because it’s so funny to read the comments the following day. I bought a giant bottle of prosecco to share with Ali, Lesley and Fliss though, which felt somehow symbolic as it was the end of our reign together as directors / secretary for the trust. There are aspects of spending time with those three that I will miss having stepped down. Many, many more aspects I won’t miss about it to compensate however 😉
We’d said we’d be home for 8pm and got in pretty much dead on. I made pizza and we watched Nativity 2. The kids were in bed just before midnight, we listened to the midnight service and put stuff under the tree, Ady made me a cup of tea and we were in bed just before 1am.
Christmas Day – all up by about 730am. Even the kids were not as desperate to be up early this year. Pressies opened and bacon sandwiches and bucks fizz for breakfast. We put the genny on for a couple of hours for Davies and I to set his laptop up. Dave and Faye came over with gifts for us all (Lush stuff, a bottle of fizz, some chocolate) and we gave them their photo mugs. We went outside in Christmas jumpers to get our traditional Christmas day photo, were joined by Waddles the piglet. The kids elected to stay home rather than come down the shop so Ady and I went down for a couple of drinks – Jinty was there, as was her Dad, Bad Neil called in for one and Dave and Faye came down. We walked back up with them. The dinner was all but ready but we decided to ring the Sussex Goddards which took longer than planned so dinner was late. Delicious though. Home made crackers pulled and silly hats worn. We then rang my parents before slumping on the sofas. We watched The Snowman and Father Christmas on dvd and everyone faded off to bed.
Boxing Day – Slower start obviously ;). We headed down to the bunkhouse, via the shop and bumping onto Lesley and her Mum, then Neil and his mum, out for separate walks for a Leftovers Party. We’d done this last Boxing Day in the hall and it had been quite a good afternoon but there is no heating in the hall just now so we had moved it to the bunkhouse where Kirsty (Jinty’s sister) and Ewan (Neil’s brother – a couple!) were staying. There was not a massive turn out but it was nice to hang out and chat for a couple of hours. We had fun playing with Ewans gift of a remote control copter drone thingie. We left before it got dark to come home and feed the animals. Ady and I swapped over all the stuff in the Jeep and the Rangerover – all the amazon subscribe and save food had come on Christmas Eve so the Jeep was filled with that plus our veg box, the Rangerover had an empty gas bottle and loads of rubbish to go to the pier. We had buffet style dinner.
Sunday – we are expecting dreadful weather coming in so had decided to spend the day getting stuff done outside. Davies was now coming down with the cold, Scarlett still residing in Snotsville so they stayed home and kept the fire going. Ady and I took the laundry to the castle, took the rubbish and gas bottle to the pier, collected some bags of hay from SNH (old unwanted stuff we are using as pig bedding), swapped the washing into the drier and then came home for lunch. I had put the ham to boil so swapped that over to bake. We chopped some firewood, got everything up the hill from the day before, all the amazon stuff put away and then walked back down to collect the laundry. In the evening we watched the first Sherlock. Both the kids enjoyed it.
Today – the ferry was cancelled meaning some folk are stranded here and others are stranded off. Not sure how the village is faring as the winds are mostly southerlies which don’t really affect us but its not been as windy as we’d been worrying about. More forecast tomorrow though and it has rained loads tonight. I made leek and potato soup and Ady made turkey soup, both using the stock from boiling the ham. All eaten and very delicious – a whole loaf of bread eaten with it, Scarlett had three bowls and four slices! We watched the second Sherlock and a film from the library, some animation about a knight called Justin, it was quite good. We rewatched Be Kind Rewind with dinner, the rest of the cold ham and chips.