Happy Mondays: Happy Christmasdays
Dec. 27th, 2010 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzie_and_ari Helloooo!
1. So, it's been Christmas. We had so many about turn... maybe... is it../? type decisions and a couple of days of teary despair. In the end we spent Christmas Day just the two of us which was unexpectedly awesome. Not because I don't like Ari - she's ok - but because to me Christmas should be a huge raucous type affair with lots of different people. We always had at least 8 folk when we were growing up, some complete randoms, and that's how I like Christmas. But then maybe a quiet romantic Christmas once in a while is a good thing. In a few years we will have screaming children at our feet and we will look back with moony eyes.
We got up good and early as we had to talk to New Zealand, who were just going to bed, and to to my Ma, before she ran off on her mayoral engagements. We opened presents over the phone - presents were sent fairly last minute via DHL who I would actually recommend in any case for sending parcels and heavy things within the UK - they go by volume rather than weight meaning what we sent down was probably cheaper than if we'd have gone Royal Mail.
Then we went sledging, which is a Top Christmas Day Activity, then came home and prepared a lovely Christmas dinner. We pulled the table out and had napkins and Billie Holiday playing. Ariadne made mackerel pate with smoked salmon to begin with - yumbo. Then we had an organic rolled turkey thigh we picked up from the farmer's market for only a fiver (hurrah!), stuffed and wrapped in bacon, and chipolatas wrapped in bacon (and roast tatties and parsnips). Oh and we also had bacon for breakfast. It was a pretty bacon-heavy day. I genuinely think that I will have eaten more meat and drunk more alcohol this December than the rest of the year put together.
We watched The Sound of Music until 'the end, the end' - being the part where Maria and the Captain get married. The subsequent whole Nazi thing is just an add-on. We played Scrabble, we had a roaring fire, we watched Love Actually for the second time in a week... It was a tip-toppedy day.
We have also been incredibly lucky present-wise. We didn't do many presents ourselves, due to Epic Skintness - all close family got stuff we our overall spend was quite low, so I think we were quite bowled over by the awesomeness of what we got. My favourite presents included:
My Mum bought me boots for Christmas. My previous boots, bog-standard Doc Martens, had had their soles completely worn away. Or their souls, maybe. I could barely walk in the snow - a sledging expedition got cut short because I couldn't get up the hill. I sent my Mum links for some boots I like and got these ones. Ooh, what lovely boots, I said. However, by the time we returned from the Christmas sledging trip bits had fallen off - but whilst walking, not whilst sledging. So we are returning the bad boots to Amazon and getting a refund, but figured now was the time to get some replacement ones. Ariadne and I spent about three hours boothunting today and finally got these, in a lovely pinkish brown colour, massively reduced, which I actually prefer to the others anyway. They make me happy to think of them. Also, the ability to walk continues to amaze me! How very very lucky I am.
3. Boxing day: also loveliness. We got up ridiculously late, then wandered round the Christmas market and finally rode the ferris wheel, which we were supposed to have done on 1 December. Then Tina and Hazel came for dinner. We had the table out again and had smoked salmon followed by salmon, with all the wine and Apples to Apples and cards and we all wore cracker hats and it was lovely lovely. Tina stayed over and I made incompetent eggs for breakfast.
4. Ooh, Ari has cracked into the Bacon Fries.
5. Saw Burlesque last Wednesday. It was predictable and trite and Cher's motionless face was amongst the best acting in it. But I liked it. There was fun singing and dancing. There were some genius moments of Alan Cumming - alas, too few! - and I am a sucker for a boy in eyeliner and a bowler hat. A very good awful film.
6. Excited about new year. Ari's friend-since-forever Eve is coming up for a few days and also Ed will be up. Coolio.
7. Next year we are in fact going to go to Australia for Christmas and get all the Casses over there too. We might have to go on plane we pedal ourselves, via the moon, but we will get there on a hang-glider.
I think that's about it. Mostly it's been lying around, watching films, drinking tea and having a lovely time. Ari rocks.
Happy Hogmanay everyone, see you in 2011!
Lizzie xxx
1. So, it's been Christmas. We had so many about turn... maybe... is it../? type decisions and a couple of days of teary despair. In the end we spent Christmas Day just the two of us which was unexpectedly awesome. Not because I don't like Ari - she's ok - but because to me Christmas should be a huge raucous type affair with lots of different people. We always had at least 8 folk when we were growing up, some complete randoms, and that's how I like Christmas. But then maybe a quiet romantic Christmas once in a while is a good thing. In a few years we will have screaming children at our feet and we will look back with moony eyes.
We got up good and early as we had to talk to New Zealand, who were just going to bed, and to to my Ma, before she ran off on her mayoral engagements. We opened presents over the phone - presents were sent fairly last minute via DHL who I would actually recommend in any case for sending parcels and heavy things within the UK - they go by volume rather than weight meaning what we sent down was probably cheaper than if we'd have gone Royal Mail.
Then we went sledging, which is a Top Christmas Day Activity, then came home and prepared a lovely Christmas dinner. We pulled the table out and had napkins and Billie Holiday playing. Ariadne made mackerel pate with smoked salmon to begin with - yumbo. Then we had an organic rolled turkey thigh we picked up from the farmer's market for only a fiver (hurrah!), stuffed and wrapped in bacon, and chipolatas wrapped in bacon (and roast tatties and parsnips). Oh and we also had bacon for breakfast. It was a pretty bacon-heavy day. I genuinely think that I will have eaten more meat and drunk more alcohol this December than the rest of the year put together.
We watched The Sound of Music until 'the end, the end' - being the part where Maria and the Captain get married. The subsequent whole Nazi thing is just an add-on. We played Scrabble, we had a roaring fire, we watched Love Actually for the second time in a week... It was a tip-toppedy day.
We have also been incredibly lucky present-wise. We didn't do many presents ourselves, due to Epic Skintness - all close family got stuff we our overall spend was quite low, so I think we were quite bowled over by the awesomeness of what we got. My favourite presents included:
- The mug of joy. I've wanted a new mug for ages, and have been trying to explain to the missus what kind I would like. Every mug I've seen has been good but not quite right. This mug is exactly the right size and heaviness (which is the correct term when it comes to Really Good Mugs) and it has camper vans and purple stars on it. I don't care if this makes me 12. I LOVE it.
- A crocheted tea cosy, from Hazel. Really does keep the tea cosy. Also, as Ari pointed out, it looks a little bit like a mad sea monster who scuttles along the ocean bed squirting ink and trying to mate with things. So win-win, really.
- A book of soups and stews which I can use as inspiration to finally use the slow cooker I got for my birthday and have yet to use. Bad Lizzie.
- An entire pub display of Bacon Fries, from Erin and Brian. Looks awesome up on the wall and I don't want to actually eat any.
- Boots. Oh, the boots:
My Mum bought me boots for Christmas. My previous boots, bog-standard Doc Martens, had had their soles completely worn away. Or their souls, maybe. I could barely walk in the snow - a sledging expedition got cut short because I couldn't get up the hill. I sent my Mum links for some boots I like and got these ones. Ooh, what lovely boots, I said. However, by the time we returned from the Christmas sledging trip bits had fallen off - but whilst walking, not whilst sledging. So we are returning the bad boots to Amazon and getting a refund, but figured now was the time to get some replacement ones. Ariadne and I spent about three hours boothunting today and finally got these, in a lovely pinkish brown colour, massively reduced, which I actually prefer to the others anyway. They make me happy to think of them. Also, the ability to walk continues to amaze me! How very very lucky I am.
3. Boxing day: also loveliness. We got up ridiculously late, then wandered round the Christmas market and finally rode the ferris wheel, which we were supposed to have done on 1 December. Then Tina and Hazel came for dinner. We had the table out again and had smoked salmon followed by salmon, with all the wine and Apples to Apples and cards and we all wore cracker hats and it was lovely lovely. Tina stayed over and I made incompetent eggs for breakfast.
4. Ooh, Ari has cracked into the Bacon Fries.
5. Saw Burlesque last Wednesday. It was predictable and trite and Cher's motionless face was amongst the best acting in it. But I liked it. There was fun singing and dancing. There were some genius moments of Alan Cumming - alas, too few! - and I am a sucker for a boy in eyeliner and a bowler hat. A very good awful film.
6. Excited about new year. Ari's friend-since-forever Eve is coming up for a few days and also Ed will be up. Coolio.
7. Next year we are in fact going to go to Australia for Christmas and get all the Casses over there too. We might have to go on plane we pedal ourselves, via the moon, but we will get there on a hang-glider.
I think that's about it. Mostly it's been lying around, watching films, drinking tea and having a lovely time. Ari rocks.
Happy Hogmanay everyone, see you in 2011!
Lizzie xxx
