I can’t really use the ‘sory I was too busy to blog’ excuse this time. I certainly was up to Christmas, but the last three days I have had time, just got out of the habit. The week leading up to Christmas was busy, but it was great to have both Nikki and Robbie home, and have a full house.

Nikki came back early in December. She spent some time at home, some time in Weymouth visiting her injured friend Serita, and some time training. The weekend before Christmas Nikki had been out on the Friday evening with her old friend Jade, who had just returned from travelling. Nikki got home (so she tells me) at about 3:30am Saturday morning. At 5:55 am there was a knocking at the front door…I, thinking it was still the middle of the night, staggered down stairs thinking Nikki had locked herself out, wearing nothing but an old t-shirt and my underpants….. I opened the door to… not Nikki, but a lady who had arrived to do a random drugs test! Nikki had to drink 4 pints of water before she could produce a sample. After an hour she produced a sample… the lady was happy and off she went. Nikki then had the problem where she couldn’t stop going to the loo because she had had so much water.

The Friday evening before Christmas, Robbie, Ellie and myself met up with Nikki in Bracknell (on her way back from visiting Serita) to visit my Mum and Dad (Nan and Grandad), we then went on to visit Mark, Carol, Carmen and Scott to wish them a happy christmas, before going over to Wargrave to see Steve and his family. It was a long evening, but well worth it just to see everyone.

Tricia had been busy in the lead up to Christmas with TLC work… she finally ‘closed the shop’ on Dec 22nd, but had also managed to get all the present shopping done, and all our provisions in for Christmas, so it was quite nice to have a relaxed Christmas Eve. At 6pm Ellie and myself went to the local church for the carol service, Ellie was doing a reading. Nikki and Robbie went up to the local pub for some drinke with old friends who were back from uni etc. Then Tricia, Nikki, Ellie and myself went to midnight mass – my first one since Nikki was born, and I really enjoyed it. Tricia, Ellie and myself did the family prayers.

Christmas day was a slow start, we were all out of bed by 9am. Stockings were opened, then a late breakfast, before presents under the tree were opened. It was an enjoyable slow pace to the day. We finished Christmas dinner at 4pm, tidied up and all sat and watchd the last Harry Potter film.

On Boxing Day Tricia’s parents (Granny and Grampy) came over. Again a relaxing day, after lunch we sat and played the ‘Logo’ game, which was good fun. The following day, Tuesday, Tricia’s brother Dave and his family came over. On Wednesday Nikki had to go down to Bath for mid season testing, whilst Tricia, Ellie and myself went down to Salisbury to see ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. A long way to go for a panto, but Deb and Carlos’ son Simon was part of the stage production team, so we went to support him.

On Thursday I stayed at home whilst the rest of the family went off to the sales in Milton Keynes. After a hectic period leading up to Christmas and then a number of days of cooking and entertaining it was very nice to have a ‘down day’… and to be honest I have enjoyed a few since.

Nikki started her travelling again on New Years Eve. She is now in St Moritz in Switzerland. They had an 18 hour drive to get there. On New Yeras Eve we spent the evening with some friends in the village. I was asked to do a quiz which ended up being some fun. On New Years Day Robbie and I went to see a film called ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. I had read the first book in early December. Robbie then get me the second book in the trilogy for Christmas. So I was keen to see the film, there were some good actors in it, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, etc… and it was very well done, but didn’t have quite the same ‘hold’ as the book. 

Tricia bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I now have the last book in the trilogy downloaded and I am finding it very easy to read on the Kindle. I am very pleased with the present. I got the family an iPad… which has been in constant use since Christmas Day. 

Tomorrow is the return to work… groan. I could do with another 3 months off work

Here are some photo’s from the Christmas period.

 The last one is Ellies castle… her Christmas homework, to build a castle. It will be a Bavarian one. She is doing very well, with a little help from Robbie !