An early celebration with the lovely Mr and Mrs Veasey...

We are now racing towards Christmas with all the associated panic that comes with it.  Christmas Day is Tuesday and so with the weekend approaching I feel I have plenty of time to get everything done and then I realise that well, no actually, time is running out.  This evening we are having Di and Rob over for a Christmas Curry - not traditional I know but we are embracing our multi-cultural-ness!  Tomorrow we plan to go and sort out Dad's grave and pop over to see Mina as I forget to take my card for her and Claire with us when we went to Fitos last week.  John wants to watch the footie and I will begin with the food preparations for the festive season.  Before all that we were heading off down to Emba to meet up with the electrician who was finishing off the cable for Mum and to clean the pickleball court for Marios as he has a dance party there this weekend.  As it happens the electric guy forgot to come which was a bit of a bugger.  Anyway the photo above is to try and give you an idea of how they have decorated the roundabouts so that it looks like it has been snowing!!  This was hastily taken as you can see!!!



We called into the court and soaked the lines with some grease remover spray as that had worked pretty well for me last year.  Then we went to Mum's for a nice cuppa and a cinnamon swirl although not the electrician as it transpired.  We returned to the job in hand and although a few areas needed a bit of extra elbow grease we got the court markings removed along with any residual sticky and gave the whole floor a good mop - it will probably not get one again until we do it the next time!!!

We returned home to get ready for our evening.  I had partially made the curry and Di was bringing the pud so it was just a question of getting the dips prepared and doing the rice to go into the biryani and then lighting the fire and the candles and a bit of plumping here and there and we would be ready.

John picked Di and Rob up so they wouldn't have to negotiate Cardiac Hill whilst clutching a cheesecake and there was a bit of a mix up about timings which was my fault apparently but nothing was spoiled and we eventually sat down to begin our festive evening.

We began in the conservatory which has most definitely benefited from the addition of the triplex as it seems to take very little by way of heating to raise the temperature and to keep it there, although an expensive project it was definitely worth it.  I think we should contemplate getting the panels under the window by the kitchen door insulated -  you would be amazed at how much condensation accumulates on them on the inside and if left unchecked goes black and manky.  We had the back door done and it has made a huge difference.

We learned from the other weekend with Nicky and Mark that we can sit and eat at the dining table with it positioned by the fire but only if John has got a nice big log bedded down otherwise it is most definitely too warm.

We have an agreement with Rob and Di that we will not go overboard with presents and we limit our spend to just 10 euros per person which makes it an exciting task to find something nice which of course we hope we have done.  The emphasis is on 'spend' so that leaves some wiggle room!  We knew they would want to take them home with them to enjoy on Christmas Day so John will drop them off for them tomorrow.

I failed miserably to capture Mrs V with her eyes open which is a shame but not totally unexpected!!  So here we are just about to start on our supper which was a tad hotter than I had planned but everyone seemed to enjoy it and Rob asked if he could take some home so it must have been ok for him!  At this point I was feeling absolutely fine but shortly afterwards I felt like I had been knocked down by a bus and struggled because I was worried that I might throw up over our guests - I have no idea what had hit me but I reckon it was some sort of bug.

Anyway before all that happened we played our version of the present game.  For this evening I had filled all the bags so knew what the gifts were but not which bag corresponded to the number on the dice.  I had done this because I had quite a few little gifts left over from when I had been looking for things for the previous present games.  Next year if we do it I shall ask Di if she wants to get involved then at least there will be a couple of gifts that will be a surprise to me!!!

Cheap, cheerful but good fun everyone ends up with a present and one person ends up with two.  The Veaseys were victorious so along with their main gifts they have three little extra ones to open on Christmas Day.   We hope you enjoy!!!

So sadly, as I said, as the evening drew to a close I was feeling rather under par.  I am not sure Di and Rob had got through the garden gate before I rushed off to revisit my curry - I hope this bug or whatever it is wont last too long as I have so much to do.