What are you all up to

Happy St.Stephens Day (or Boxing Day).

Had a quiet day yesterday but did manage a pleasant walk in the morning before the weather set in. Much better today with a bit of sun. Bit colder in the shade though.

Who got the unusual Christmas present then? Bet you can't beat ours. Beautifully wrapped pack of 6 Toilet Rolls!!🤣🤣. Brother in france gave us a few things to bring home in October and we were wondering what the gift wrapping contained. OH did mention whilst visiting that she liked them.😂 So we've thanked him, paraphrasing,  from "The heart of our Bottom"😂

Had a good long chat with our elderly neighbour who recently lost his wife. His family looked after him well. Tough time for those recently bereaved.

Hope nobody had a problem yesterday and all behaved themselves.

Very nice quiet day yesterday, dull wet and miserable but as we never left the house it didn't bother us. 

Lunch was leg of lamb with roast potatoes, roasted butternut squash, roast parsnips and green veg. Usual prawn cocktail for starters and pudding was a ginger and orange steamed sponge with a gooey centre and fresh thick cream. No other food was required for the rest of the day.😊

We had  long chats with both our sons, one son not allowed in the kitchen, wife's domain. Other son and grandson cooked the whole dinner, so it was a later call from them. Both families enjoying the day and tomorrow youngest son and family going up to eldest son's house for the day with his family. They both now live in Yorkshire one north one south. First time they've lived anywhere near each other since they left home 25 years ago. So nice to see/hear them all getting on. 

Today was totally different. The sun woke us up, very frosty but blue skies. After breakfast we decided to go out in the car for a drive and ended up at Dundee.

It was nice to get out in decent weather and have a good walk around.

Still contemplating on whether to use our free night voucher from the club, only have a few days left to book it but can't think of where to go at the time of year it needs to be used by 🤔

Hope you all had a good day yesterday and not too many thick heads today. 

Weather wasn't too bad yesterday, and we had a few dry walks from the van. Christmas dinner was thick steaks, with roast potatoes and roasted veg, followed by a very tasty Xmas Cheesecake with Brandy sauce.

Today was cooler but sunnier, although not as bright as forecast. We drove round to Brereton Heath Country Park where we had a couple of walks, one around the heath and lake, before a picnic lunch, after which we walked over to St Oswalds Church, which unfortunately was closed. The country park was very busy with families and dogs!! Dinner this evening was Salmon, with new potatoes and a 6 veg stir fry followed by the other half of the Cheesecake!😁

Thought you might have had a dip this morning with the other enthusiasts, Moulesy.😃

Looks as if most, if not all, had the sort of day they wanted yesterday.

Sunny, with blue sky today in Glasgow too, though we did have a couple of short showers in the morning.

We had a relatively calm Christmas Day, went down to DD around 11 and were soon set to prepare the sprouts and broccoli, DD having already got the potatoes, carrots and parsnips, pigs in blankets etc prepared for roasting, the turkey breast in the oven, and the table all set, so she was very organised.

Son and family arrived at 1pm, meal was ready at 1.45.   Food was delicious, far too much, as usual, and we took a long break after the main course to open presents, then coffee and dessert later, and the  visitors departed at 6pm to visit a relative in hospital.

Callum and Nathan eventually went to  bed around  8pm, they must have been exhausted, certainly the rest of us were!!    Watched a bit of television, couple of films, then rolled out our sleeping bags on the sofas.

Late breakfast today, and some leftovers for a late lunch.   Callum informed us that as it was Boxing Day, everyone should stay home and just wear pyjamas........not sure where he got that from!    Some of SIL's aunts and uncles came round with even more presents for the boys, 2 of them have no children or grandchildren themselves, so the boys get really spoiled  by them.

We came home around 5pm, with enough left overs for another meal, and even some for tomorrow, so there was definitely over-catering.

Glad you enjoyed your Christmas meal, KjellNN.  We very rarwly have a cooked lunch these days, but Christmas dinner is an exception.  Our daughter and famimy are setting out from Lewis tomorrow for the long journey down to N Warks - providing CalMac haven't cancelled the ferry!!  By the way,  she's been making pigs in blankets, this year...  🤣🤣

David

😂 love the pigs in blankets David, they are very cute.  Nice quiet Christmas here.  Spoke to son in Macau, and later in the day we had a homemade quiz with other son and family in Hertfordshire. OH wasn’t feeling too well last Thursday/Friday couldn’t put a finger on what (no symptoms to speak of) but seemed ok over the weekend and Christmas Day, roast lamb for us too.  Decided to go out yesterday as it was a beautiful day,  so we had a trip to Hornsea, we arrived, parked - luckily as it was very busy, got out of car OH then started feeling ill again so we had a short walk hoping some air would help but it didn’t so came back home, he spent the whole late afternoon and evening mostly asleep in bed with nothing but water!  No idea what this bug is but hope it’s gone now.  Don’t you just love a Christmas virus!!   Great to hear everyone had a good time.  A few days of nothingness now, it’s called ‘Twixmas’ (apparently) until after next Monday.  

Good to read of others' Christmas celebrations and that most of them went well. Love the pigs in Blankets David! Gosh those brave swimmers moulesy and not a wetsuit in sight! There were a number of places where people braved the sea on Christmas day. Rather them than me. Glad you got a few dry walks in nellie and your Christmas meals sound wonderful. I had to laugh about the present from your brother in France WN. Nice that you got all your family together KjellNN. heddlo sorry to hear that your OH is not feeling well. I do hope he recovers soon. There are always some horrid viruses around this time of year.

We have had 2 really lovely days. We started Christmas day by going to the Christmas service at the Cathedral. The first time for quite a while what with OH's illnesses and my shingles.  We got such a lovely welcome back. Hugs and kisses all round. A great start to the day.  We then went to our daughter's on Christmas day where our SIL had done a great job providing wonderful meal for 10 of us. We all then did the clearing and washing up. We went to our son's on Boxing Day (St Stephen's Day) where we were joined by our eldest grand-daughter, her partner and our gt grandson (they had been at the in-laws on Christmas Day) so even more to cater for.  Son and DIL did a wonderful job. So good to get most of the family together. It has been a day of unremitting rain and wind here today so we have stayed indoors and I have taken the opportunity to catch up on some jobs that I haven't been able to do during the last couple of weeks.  The weather forecast for tomorrow doesn't look much better unfortunately. This afternoon we watched a old Miss Marple film with Liz Taylor, Angela Lansbury and many other well known actors.

Good to read others Christmases went well. 

Our Christmas Day went incredibly well, my hosting nerves proved unfounded, thankfully 😃. Just hope I haven't overplayed it......

Similar to heddlo in that OH  not so good Boxing Day but we did manage a visit to fantastic  Coffee Ark in the next village, complete with reindeer, but he opted out of the rest of the day.

Very wet, started overnight, and windy day here, managed a dry-ish walk with Dora between 9 and 10. Ditches full and fast. Lots of water right across the roads! But stuck to hard surfaces without traffic 😉.

So I put away all the Christmas cooking and dining stuff. Larger trays, posh plates collapsed the table etc. That all looks a bit bare now 😢. Plenty of food to create main meals and sandwich fillings 😋. Indulged in a good chill with a couple of early episodes of Vera, which we haven't ever watched ?? So have at least another 40 plus to enjoy. The perfect afternoon for indulgence without guilt!

Love the wherenexts best Christmas present. Very useful. And the pigs in blankets.

Hope those travelling, including DSB's daughter arrive safely without issue.

Edit the Coffe Ark fb page has great photos of the truly  fabulous turn out yesterday. The weather certainly helped. 

Hope that the ferry is running, David, many have been cancelled today. The road over Drumochter is also impassable so they may have difficulty getting South even if they get to the mainland. Hope that they make it safely. Glad you had an enjoyable Christmas day. Love the "pigs in blanket"!!

Fingers crossed that your OH is feeling better now after his long sleep, heddlo. This is never the best time to catch a virus.

Millie, it sounds that you had a couple of lovely days over Christmas, at the Cathedral and with members of your family.

It has been a mixed day weather wise, but fortunately not had the very strong winds that other places have had. Although it has rained at times we have managed our walks, from the van, without getting wet.

Thanks Nellie... and others.  Ruth and Wayne''s ferry was delayed.... just had a message to say they've just got through Glasgow.  I think they'll get as far as Carlisle and then decide whether to pull over and sleep or whether to carry on.  They're in their camper van, so they have the option... at least it's all motorway from Glasgow onwards....  they're in constant touch via messenger...

David