Nearly there

I began to write this post when we got the Christmas boxes down from the loft and I grabbed my camera.

It was the 6th December and Paddington and Aunt Lucy had changed into their Nikolaus outfits, just as they do every year.

We were heading out to buy our Christmas tree, over at our local farm shop where they have fostered two miniature donkeys for a while. So very cute!

It was the week of Gloucestershire WI’s Christmas Concert in Cheltenham Town Hall, my own WI Christmas lunch and then our regular monthly WI meeting, which is December is always a bit of a party. I set off with my Secret Santa gift and a jar of cherry liqueurs for the table.

My table proved to be expert chocolate tasters in the fun “name that chocolate bar” competition too, and each of us won…a chocolate Christmas Pud! (The one we thought to be Toblerone was actually Guylain Chocolate seashell…close but wrong!) Expert taster on the team was Sarah, who guessed the % of cocoa solids in #5 correctly - I have no idea how she did that.

There’s always the regular Stuart Singers Christmas Concerts too, which this year my Hero enjoyed from a place in the audience for a change.

In all the to-ing and fro-ing, I sewed a couple of “snuffle mats” for Oliver, Edward and Amy’s French Bulldog for his Christmas present. Does he know it’s Christmas? Who knows?!

The idea is that small treats can be hidden in the folds and pockets and he can spend a few minutes seconds snuffling them out! I learned that fleece is not my favourite fabric.

My beautifully fragrant wreath arrived from Cornwall having spent a week in the Royal Mail depot in Bristol. Grrrr! If there’s one ongoing theme here this year it’s the staggering delays in deliveries and mail orders. The company with the worst record around here seems to be Evri and we still await packages to be delivered by them, replacements for those already “lost”. Grrrr again.

We put up our tree and spread the spruce branches over the garden furniture, lit the candles and the lights in anticipation of Mary’s arrival from California for a few days.

And then…

In a few short hours on Sunday morning, a few inches of snow fell, totally upsetting all plans made and giving us no choice but to sit tight and hope for things to improve, because we could go no further than our gate. Edward met Mary at LHR and she stayed over at the airport hotel until Monday morning when National Express buses were running again and we hoped to be able to get to Cirencester to meet her.

Thankfully, she made it and so did we. On Monday evening we welcomed friends and neighbours within walking distance to join us for a cosy night in.

We made a Feuerzangenbowle with mulled wine in mugs, lighting rum-soaked sugar cubes on slices of orange. It’s a lovely thing to do with friends and we look forward to the fun each year.

Eventually, when all rum has been burned in, the orange slice can be dropped into the mulled wine and the warming concoction savoured. It’s always a good job no-one needs to drive home, though staggering through the snow wasn’t exactly easy either!

I took a photograph of the temperature shown on my car when I went swimming on Thursday, when Mary had returned to London and Edward and Amy had arrived for a few days with Oliver. The snow was not going anywhere and the landscape was still a picture postcard outside.

We’ve spent a lovely few days with them, enjoying their company around the table at home and in some of our favourite places.

We ventured out on Saturday evening to the Winter Sauce restaurant at the Circus which was fun.

Amy came with me to meet my friends from the “things have slipped club” for lunch at Greek on the Docks in Gloucester too. We have been out and about!

My Hero and I have discovered how strong a small dog can be too as we took care of Oliver whilst Amy and Edward were busy. Walking him on slightly slippery pavements could be tricky!

But those have melted overnight as the temperature soared: nineteen degrees higher than last week when I went swimming today! Amy and Edward are back in London, Mary is on her way back to California and we are here at home, just the two of us again.

Which is why I finally found time to sit and write a blog post!