Happy New Year

I hope that everyone had a good christmas and new year. I can't believe that it is 2009. I remember when I was a little girl, I asked my mum if we would be alive in the year 2000 as it seemed such a long way off. Where has that time gone?

Christmas at Chez us-in-France was very pleasant, and far better than I thought it would be. I got up early to let the chickens out and feed them, the geese and the cats. OH got up and lit the fire and we went back to bed with a cuppa to open presents. He gave me the Mama Mia DVD which we watched in bed. I thought it was wonderful, he said that it got better after the first 30 mins. He says he doesn't think he will watch it again, but I think that I will come home from work one day and catch him practising the dance moves!!

We had a lazy day, lit the fire in the lounge and spent the day together watching films. We like to have our dinner in the evening, we are just not hungry for a full roast dinner at 2pm, and I certainly don't want to spend all morning cooking a dinner I don't even like or want to eat at that time. Anyway, we had a lovely meal - roast duck for him and caramelised onion and goats cheese in filo pastry for me, and a nice evening. I had thought it would be very different; I though he would spend all day on the computer upstairs and that I would spend the day on my own watching TV and preparing the dinner. It turned out very well.

Boxing Day doesn't exist in France, alot of people go back to work and the shops are generally open as usual. However, the Brits here carry on the tradition and have people round for drinks. We went to 2 on Boxing Day. Some people fairly near us, David and Anita and then over to Penny's (Violet White blog) where we got to meet her grown up children and her gorgeous granddaughter. We spent a couple of hours there and had such a good time.

New Years Eve was fabulous. Since we have been here we have spent the evening with one set of friends, but this year went somewhere else. It was a party jointly hosted by 3 couple who all live in the same lane. It started at Dave and Pennie's, with the biggest buffet you have ever seen. All the food had been provided by the 2nd couple, Ken and Lyn. There was a great mix of English and French people, we knew almost everyone there and the atmosphere was wonderful. Ken and Lyn had organised games to play. There were 6 bags with elasticated tops filled with 10 random items which you had to guess by just feeling them. Then there was outlines of countries that you had to name, you had to list as many American presidents as you could and a few other games besides. It was great fun and the evening whizzed by. Just before midnight we walked across the lane where we had fireworks and sparklers in Mick and Sue's house. All the desserts were over here and we stayed here for another couple of hours. We left at 2.15 and couldn't believe how much time had passed. It was an absolutely superb evening.

Everything is now returning to normal. The tree which I normally take down on New Years Day will come down tomorrow. We are having friends for a meal tonight and the tree looks so pretty with all it lights on. Misty has loved it; it is her indoor playground. She has climbed in it, slept in it, chucked decorations off of it and hidden behind it. She is really going to miss it.

I hope that all of you in blogland had a lovely christmas, and wish you all health and happiness for 2009.

Relaxing sundays

Well, Misty certainly decided to relax. She is going through a very snuggly phase at the moment, and likes to be near us. I sat down to crochet some little christmas trees bags yesterday afternoon, and Misty decided that she would sit on my crochet bag right next to me. Doesn't she look comfortable?It was a glorious day yesterday, freezing cold in the morning with lots of frost and ice everywhere, but bright blue sky. As I went downt he garden to feed the chickens and geese the sky was turning the most stunning pink and I debated going back to the house for my camera, but I knew that by the time I had got it the pink would have gone.

The christmas craft market in Le Dorat was on yesterday. OH decided that he could resist going, so I went on my own. There were a lot more outside stalls this year, but then it was very wet last year. There was a wonderful cheese stall run a man called Adrian. He has mainly English handmade cheeses that are absolutely divine. There was a sausage stall, I bought Ian some Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages. He had the Cumberland for dinner last night and said not to bother getting them again as he prefers the French Toulouse sausages - apparantly they have much more meat in them. Penny had a stall there which looked fabulous, lots of lovely treasures on it, her friend Sandra had a stall next door with some wonderful handmade cards.

When I got home I spent a lovely afternoon crocheting some little christmas tree bags. You put a Ferrero Rocher chocolate in them and hang them on the tree - if I bother with a tree this year, never have I felt so un-christmassy. The pattern is Pennys, and once you get into the swing of them they are suprisingly easy, I managed to make 2 of them during the afternoon.

These are my little bags. The 2 white ones are white wool with a silver thread running through it, the blue one are in a fine metallic yarn. I am really please with them.

Christmas is coming ...
Isn't it bizarre how life changes. This will be our 4th christmas in France. The first we spent in rented accomodation and spent most of the day sorting out the computer and loads of receipts, then had a roast dinner in the evening.

The second we spent in our own house with a woman who 'was' a friend and her husband who we had never met before. He turned out to be an alchoholic, drinking a couple of bottles of vodkas a day (we found all the empties hidden all over the house after they left). We had invited them for a few days over christmas, they stayed for 10 days. They would get up at 10am after the fires had been swept and re-lit, had breakfast served to them, sat in front of the fire until midday in their dressing gowns, then got dressed and sat around for another couple of hours, he would then go for a walk with a bottle of vodka in his pocket, she would moan about him, then they would sit in front of the fire all evening and get drunk! It was the worst christmas I have ever had.

Last christmas we spent on our own, and had a nice relaxing day.

This year, will probably be the same, my aunt and cousin were going to come out but I think the flight costs are prohibitive.

Back in blighty, I worked full-time in an extremely busy hair salon. The whole of December was booked up by the end of September. I would be planning and scheduling my clients colours and cuts to get them ready for christmas. My own christmas shopping would be completed by the end of November as I only had sundays off in December. The bane of my christmas was the 'traditional' dressing up on christmas eve. I hated it! As if I had nothing else to do on my sundays off, I had to think of fancy dress to some stupid theme the managers had thought up. All my clients felt sorry for us having to look so stupid. I would do all the present shopping, the card writing and the wrapping. That is until one year when I refused to do his family's wrapping or card writing. I worked as usual on christmas eve, would come home to an empty house, as OH would be on his traditional christmas eve p**s up with his friends. Then on christmas morning he had an almighty fit because he hadn't thought I was serious about him having to wrap his own stuff up!!

Then there was whose family do we go to? What a flap! For the first few years of our relationship we spent the day apart, both of us going to our own family and meeting at home on the evening. Then I fell out with my lot, and started going to OH's family. It was very nice, but just not the same as my lots day. Not that it should be the same, or that my lot did anything different or special, but it was just what I was used to - you know, silly sayings and routines that come out year after year til you forget why they started, reminiscing over previous christmases and who did what to whom.

The best christmas since I've been married was when we had OH's parents to us for dinner. We went to theirs in the morning for pressies and drinks (they lived in the same village), had the afternoon to ourselves and then they came to us. It was really relaxed, fun and light hearted.

Now we have our own routines. I cook breakfast and wash-up, I watch crap on TV (White Christmas is essential) and OH plays computer games, I cook roast dinner (which I hate, but is his favourite, I would much prefer Indian or Mexican food), he goes back on the computer and I watch more crap. What a great day!!!!!! I love christmas trees, decorations and stuff - he is not at all bothered. Sometimes I wonder why I bother as well, I mean there is only the two of us, although I think the cats would miss the tree and all the baubles they can knock off of it!

Sorry, rant over, but it feels so much better to get it off my chest.