Yesterday we had our annual drive around West Sussex the weekend before Christmas delivering cards to friends who really live too close to just stick them in the post. I am of the shove it quietly through the letterbox and run style delivery, Ady is of the knock on the door and chat politely and promise to get together in the new year style delivery.
We also had various things to collect having reserved them online in two different branches of Argos. And we had nearly enough luncheon vouchers from online surveys to pay for a bargain bucket!
So a good few hours of yesterday was spent in the car. We also stopped for Scarlett and I to dash into Peacocks for a new outfit for her and some new jeans for Davies as I’d realised his one remaining pair without holes in the knee now had a hole in the knee. We try and smarten ourselves up at least a little for Christmas Day and we also had a party to go to with a smart dress code so it justified getting something new for the children to wear. I’d already got Davies a new top (black, long sleeve with a waistcoat and tie printed on it, very Davies :)) and Scarlett chose a black skirt with sequins (adjustable waist so got age 8-9 and pulled the waist right in, it’ll fit her for a couple of years!), a red shrug style cardi and under suffrance a pair of black tights with stars on them. We decided she was bound to have a top at home to wear with it and found a dress that is slightly too short to be a dress anyway and went perfectly with it.
We got all our cards delivered and got home around 4pm. Then we all got ready. I’d bought a black dress in Asda the other night – £12 reduced to half price and then with the VAT reduction it was £5.71 – bargain! I had various shoe ponderings but went with my mad pink ones in the end and they did fine til I kicked them off to dance on the sofa later.
We drove over to Ros and Tony’s new house. They always have an open house at Christmas and we went to two previous ones but last years clashed with Ady’s work do so we missed it, and we really missed it as it is always lovely with loads of food, drink, nice people, happy festive feeling and most of all musical people who are happy to play music and do singing. What more could one want?! This was our first visit to their amazing new house, still very much a work in progress but already stunning, gorgeous and just full of potential for the fantastic home it will be sometime in the future :).
No party ever seems to happen at Tony’s without a bonfire and this was no exception. My shoes, common sense and it being far too far away from the bottles of wine prevented me from venturing outside but plenty of others (Ady and kids included) did and came back in stinking of smoke having been bouncing on the trampoline and climbing in the trees right next to the fire 😆
At one point I was walking through the hall (which is enormous and has sofas and fireplaces with inbuilt seats and a big sweeping Dallas style staircase and everything) and realised I was all alone in this great big space with Avril Lavigne blaring out so I did the only sensible thing, leapt on the sofa and started dancing. More people came out and joined in and there was a mad variety of different interpretations to the music 😆
Scarlett was in her absolute element; there was Kessie, Pea’s cat Rainbow and plenty of stairs to run up and down in looking very cute and oddly un-Scarlett like in her pretty clothes 🙂
Davies veered between having a great time and two episodes of crying – once was a genuine injury – he got kicked in the nose on the trampoline. He was so upset I wondered if it was broken and it is bruised today. The other was overtiredness and wanting to go home. It was about 10pm and he was tired but I was cross because at home he is never asleep by 10pm anyway and the rest of us were having a really good time. Ady dealt with him and he managed to perk up and keep going for another hour or so by which time Ady wanted to go too (what with going to work today and all).
We finished off with carols, Christmas songs and then whatever we could persuade musically talented people to play for us to singalong to on the piano (we left after Bohemian Rhapsody).Oh it was great :).
She can’t access my blog for some odd reason at the moment so she won’t know I’m saying it but thanks Ros for a lovely, lovely time anyway 🙂 x