Saturday – Ady was working in the morning. We had diesel going off so I walked down to the shop and got various bits and pieces and cadged a lift to the pier with Neil, dropping all the shopping off at the Jeep which Ady had at the hostel on the way. It was a busy boat with several people going off and several more coming back. I got a lift back with Fliss. The last few parcels I’d been waiting for had arrived. Fliss dropped me off at the hostel where I caught up with Ady and we came home together laden with post, shopping and laundry.
I spent some time in the afternoon wrapping up stuff.
Sunday – More wrapping in the morning, got it all finished 🙂 Then it was off to the kids Christmas party in the afternoon. We were also doing Secret Santa although there was only a handful of us there. We arrived first and I got the mulled wine on. I’d managed to pick up white wine from the shop the day before instead of red so we called in there on the way to swap them over. Jinty had finally done wages from post office for November and December and totted up all that we owed her from various veg orders and bulk buys of tinned stuff. The remainder was £25 to me 🙂 She also gave me a giant bottle of prosecco as a Christmas staff bonus 🙂
The bunkhouse party was fun if a little stilted. Good to see Lesley who I’d not caught up with a while. The kids all had fun, secret santas were gratefully received and all the mulled wine was consumed. Davies and Scarlett left a little before us but we were all home by about 8pm. I cooked our own sausages for dinner.
Monday – we thought it was the solstice although realised later that it was infact solstice the following day. I never knew it was ever any other date than 21st! I chopped firewood in the morning. It was Fliss’ Christmas party from 4pm so we headed down the hill to the village. We stopped at the shop first to do a big Christmas food shop of cheeses, booze and bits as the rent had gone in that morning. We left all the chilled stuff with Jinty to collect on Christmas Eve though. Then to Fliss’. Sean, Ali and Eve were already there but everyone else came along a lot later. Jed, Neil & Lesley, David. It was a fab evening, lovely food, loads of drink, good music and lots of laughs with excellent company. Fliss’ house is always really pretty at Christmas with loads of lights and candles and it was a really good night. Davies and Scarlett left around 1030pm, we were quite a bit later, getting home just before 1am I think.
Tuesday – Poor Ady, Neil & Fliss were up super early, meeting at 7am to skin and butcher two deer for Fliss. We were given a haunch for Ady’s help 🙂 Fliss was really rough, Ady & Neil had been more mindful of the early start but Lesley, Ali and I were all a bit worse for wear too. I walked down with Bonnie to meet the ferry, calling in on Fliss & Ady before we went to the boat, collecting food from the freezer and pick up the car which we’d left in the village the night before. Neil, Jed and I were first at the pier and the ferry was really late in. Ali joined us and then Jinty and we had a post mortem of the night before, which is often as much fun as a good night I always think.
Then along to the bunkhouse for the IRCT AGM where I finally got to resign as a director. Ah 🙂 It was a strange atmosphere with some undercurrents but thankfully no longer in my direction. I am massively relieved and happy to have stepped down, I will go back to it again at some point but for now I am really looking forward to 2016 being All About The Goddards. We came home bringing the car back with all the stuff back up to the croft. Big Dave and Faye had arrived on the ferry and Dave called over briefly in the afternoon. Ady brought up the shopping but we were all pretty knackered from the night before and had a hearty carb filled dinner and an early night.
Today – Steve turned up this morning with Christmas gifts, the news he has been diagnosed as bi polar and would like us to help be his first responders of noticing signs of manic or depressed states. He stepped up to be a director yesterday so was anxious about that too so I chatted to him about that for about an hour before he headed off. Meanwhile Ady had killed the turkey and was plucking and gutting that. Ady then did toilet maintenance while Scarlett and I made gingerbread and mince pies. The mince pies are delicious, the ginger bread houses were a disaster! I had thought that making gingerbread static caravans would be cool but I had rolled the mix out too thick and made them too big and not cooked long enough for them to be solid enough to stick together. I rapidly lost patience, Davies had a go and also gave up but Scarlett stuck at it and from a massive pile of gingerbread has constructed something resembling a house, using marzipan as a sort of polyfiller!
Festive film tonight was Sleepless in Seattle which turned out to be not very festive at all and infact a bit boring. Ah well. It’s pretty windy with some big gusts shaking the walls, Scarlett has come down with a cold and is feeling a bit sorry for herself. Tomorrow is supposed to be just making Christmas crackers and staying cosy.